Trump’s surgeon general nominee Nicole Saphier clears key Senate committee
NEWS | 01 October 2026
Nicole Saphier, nominee for U.S. surgeon general, speaks during a Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on September 16, 2026. I agree my information will be processed in accordance with the Scientific American Inc. Privacy Policy . We leverage third party services to both verify and deliver email. By providing your email address, you also consent to having the email address shared with third parties for those purposes. The third time appears to be the charm for President Donald Trump’s nomination for the nation’s top doctor. Nicole Saphier, who Trump tipped for the job in April, will now face a vote in the full Senate for the job of surgeon general. Saphier is a radiologist by training and has appeared on Fox News. She is the third pick for the job, after Casey Means, a wellness influencer and start-up founder, and Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News personality, both of whom failed to garner enough support. Saphier’s nomination passed through the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on party lines on Wednesday. Now the nomination proceeds to a full Senate vote—a date for that is still pending. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. At a hearing of the committee earlier this month, Saphier had seemed to distance herself from Trump’s false claims about childhood vaccines, saying she had seen no “reputable” evidence that vaccines cause autism. She also affirmed to the committee that the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine has been “our greatest tool” for preventing the spread of measles. Still, her nomination has been criticized by some public health advocacy groups for her lack of experience in public health, specifically. The surgeon general typically acts as the nation’s top public health educator and is expected to communicate information on how to stay healthy. They also oversee the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a cadre of public health professionals who can respond to national health crises, such as a pandemic.
Author: Claire Cameron.
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