President Donald Trump’s latest nominee to be surgeon general said on Wednesday that she supports vaccines against measles and hepatitis B, and that vaccines do not cause autism.
Dr. Nicole Saphier, 44, said during her confirmation hearing in Washington before the Senate Health Committee that she sees the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine as “our greatest tool in combating measles epidemics.”
She also said, “I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism.”
Saphier, a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New Jersey, added that she supports the government’s recommendation that virtually all newborns receive a dose of the hepatitis B vaccine.
Saphier also said in an ethics disclosure that if confirmed, she would divest from a number of interests, including stock in pharmaceutical companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, and would resign from Empower MD, a company that sells her supplements.
Trump’s two previous nominees to be surgeon general during his second term were not approved by the Senate.
Dr. Casey Means, the last one, was withdrawn after several Republican senators, along with Democrats, expressed opposition to her in part because of her positions on vaccines.
Republicans control the Senate and thus have a majority on each committee. A majority vote from the Senate Health Committee is needed to advance the nomination of Saphier to the full Senate.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the committee chairman, said on Wednesday that health officials must acknowledge what he described as conclusions backed by science instead of “declaring things contrary to evidence to be unsafe.”
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) said that the country needs leaders at the Department of Health and Human Services “that understand and affirm the longstanding scientific consensus that vaccines are safe and effective,” particularly amid ongoing measles outbreaks.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has backed the measles shot but noted it can cause side effects. He has also said it is an individual’s choice whether to receive the vaccine.
Some of Saphier’s positions run counter to changes or attempted changes made under Kennedy.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, for instance, was changed in 2025 at the behest of Kennedy to say it’s possible vaccines cause autism.
Officials also shifted the universal hepatitis B vaccine recommendation to advise vaccination only for children born to mothers who tested positive or had unknown status, although that change was among those blocked by a federal judge in the spring.