Picks an actual doctor though there are new questions
In his
announcement on the social media platform Truth Social, Trump called Means “a
strong MAHA Warrior," in reference to the Make America Healthy Again
movement fueled by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health
and Human Services.
The president
also blamed Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana
for Means’ failed nomination, calling the senator "a very disloyal
person," and accusing him of "intransigence and political
games."
Means proved
too hard a pill to swallow
Though a graduate
of Stanford University School of Medicine, Means holds no medical license. She
dropped out of her surgical residency program, citing disillusionment with
traditional medicine, and pivoted to a career as a wellness influencer.
Her brother,
Calley Means, is a top Kennedy aide who has discussed taking psychedelics with his sister.
Means’ lack of
clinical experience, coupled with her contested claims on nutrition,
vaccines, contraception, and medical practice, raised eyebrows during her
nomination hearing, including from Cassidy, a board-certified
gastroenterologist who specialized in liver disease.
Cassidy grilled Means during her confirmation hearing,
asking her how she wanted to change childhood vaccination recommendations.
Means testified
that "vaccines save lives," but also falsely said that the science
was not settled on the debunked link between vaccinations and autism, and that
the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine has been linked to deaths.
"The measles
vaccine has caused some adverse effects that have harmed children. There have
been children who have died from the MMR vaccine,” Means said.
The fact Means
wouldn’t endorse the MMR vaccine showed that she was an inappropriate fit to be
surgeon general, said Paul Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center
at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
“She would be
serving as America's doctor who was unwilling to act like America's doctor,”
Offit told CIDRAP News.
Will Saphier be more palatable?
The new nominee,
Nicole B. Saphier, MD, is a respected radiologist with an inspiring personal
story but controversial views on COVID vaccines.
Saphier is director
of breast imaging at
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center's facility in Monmouth,
New Jersey. The
hospital congratulated
Saphier on her
nomination in a post on X: "Over her decade of service to the MSK
community, Dr. Saphier has been a tireless advocate for women's health and
early cancer detection, expanding access to breast cancer screening, and
raising awareness at a community and national level."
Saphier also
hosts the iHeart Radio podcast, “Wellness Unmasked,” and is one of dozens of current or former Fox News personalities
that Trump has nominated to a high-ranking position.
In a post on
X, Saphier wrote on her private account, “God Bless the USA. Incredibly
honored to receive this nomination.”
In a
separate Truth Social post, Trump called Saphier “a STAR physician” who has
spent her career guiding women through breast cancer diagnosis and treatment,
“while at the same time working with men and women on all other forms of cancer
diagnoses and treatments.”
In nominating
her, Trump is betting that Saphier will be a more palatable choice than
Means.
Saphier recently
retweeted news stories about the benefits of the HPV vaccine, and about a
Danish study that found Tylenol in pregnancy does not cause autism. The
latter contradicts recent claims by Kennedy and Trump.
“That kind of
independence really matters for the surgeon general role. The job is to give
Americans the best available science, even when it’s politically
inconvenient,” said Jake Scott, MD, an infectious disease physician at the
Stanford University School of Medicine.
While Scott sees
Saphier as an improvement over Means, he has concerns on some of her
views.
For example,
though Saphier has said that the best way to prevent measles is through vaccination, in a
2025 interview on Fox News during the Texas measles outbreak, she echoed Means’
inaccurate suggestion that healthy children have died because of the MMR
vaccine.
The job is to
give Americans the best available science, even when it’s politically
inconvenient.
The Infectious
Disease Society of America says that there have been no deaths shown to be
related to the MMR vaccine in healthy people. "There have been rare cases
of deaths from vaccine side effects among children who are immune compromised,
which is why it is recommended that they don't get the vaccine,” the group said
in a statement.
Saphier has been
open about some of her personal struggles, including her experience as a teenage mother.
In a column for
Fox News, Saphier wrote, “college and medical school seemed like distant dreams
for a teenage mom, but I turned those dreams into reality by leaning on my mom
and the rest of my family to help. Through sleepless nights of studying, balancing
motherhood with academics and work, and overcoming countless hurdles along the
path, my mom was there, cheering me on every step of the way.”
