Trump Replaces Surgeon General Nominee Casey Means with Dr. Nicole Saphier

President Trump withdrew the nomination of Dr. S. Surgeon General on Thursday and announced the nomination of Dr. Nicole B. Saphier in her place. Trump assailed Senator Bill Cassidy, the Louisiana Republican who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, in a separate post, stating that Cassidy had 'stood in the way of Robert F.

U.S. Saphier serves as director of breast imaging at MSK Monmouth, a branch of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New Jersey, and as an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, specializing in breast and oncologic imaging. She has experience performing minimally invasive, image-guided procedures of the breast, kidney, pancreas, liver, thyroid and lymph nodes, according to the Memorial Sloan Kettering website.

In a Fox News video, Saphier stated that the 'overwhelming majority' of 'good research' shows no causal link between childhood vaccinations and autism. In the same video, she added that if parents don't want to give vaccines when their babies are so little, it is OK to have that conversation and let them wait until their child's a little bit older before they head off to kindergarten.

Means, a Stanford-educated functional medicine physician and wellness influencer, was nominated by Trump last May at the recommendation of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Means holds a medical degree but does not have an active medical license, did not complete a residency, and has never been a practicing physician.

During her confirmation hearing before the Senate HELP committee in late February, Means stated that 'vaccines save lives' but stopped short of recommending vaccines against measles and influenza, saying decisions about vaccination should be made jointly by parents and their pediatricians.

Senator Cassidy noted during the hearing that two children died last year from measles and pressed Means on encouraging the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Means responded that she supported vaccination and that every patient should have a conversation with their doctor about getting vaccinated.

Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska refused to commit to voting in favor of Means' nomination.

Means' confirmation stalled amid opposition, including from some Republicans, over her vaccine views and lack of current medical license. This marks Trump's third nominee for Surgeon General in his second term. His first nominee, Dr.

Janette Nesheiwat, a New York family physician and former Fox News medical contributor, had her nomination pulled just days before her Senate confirmation hearing last year.