Trump surgeon general pick backs MMR vaccine, rejects link between childhood vaccines and autism

President Donald Trump holds up a signed executive order calling for childhood vaccine shots to be spaced out into separate visits during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on Aug.10, 2026.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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Saphier also differed with some of Kennedy’s past statements about a potential link between vaccines and autism.

“Well, humbly, I don’t know what causes autism, but I have not seen reputable evidence that would suggest that vaccines cause autism,” Saphier said.“I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism.”

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InKennedy later backed away from claiming a definitive link between vaccines and autism, saying in his confirmation hearing last year that he would “do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.”

Secretary Robert F.Kennedy Jr.speaks during an announcement at the Department of Health and Human Services headquarters in Washington, D.C., on July 21, 2026.(Tierney L.Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Later, Saphier addressed a question from Cassidy, also a physician, about whether children should receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth.

“Chairman Cassidy, you’re speaking to someone who tells people they have cancer every day.And the hepatitis B vaccine is one of the most tangible ways we have to prevent cancer,” she said, adding, “The most tried and true way to prevent hepatitis B infection and effectively lower hepatitis B associated illness is universal birth dosing.”

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Cassidy repeatedly pressed Saphier on whether she supported the Trump administration’s move in Decemberto stop universally recommending the vaccineat birth for babies whose mothers test negative for hepatitis B.

Saphier stopped short of saying whether she believed the policy should be reversed.

Nicole Saphier shakes the hand of Sen.Bill Cassidy, R-La., ahead of her confirmation hearing to be surgeon general on Sept.16, 2026.(Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Under questioning from other senators, Saphier said that as surgeon general, she would promote early cancer screening, review data on the harms of flavored e-cigarettes and study the mental health effects ofAI chatbots on children and adolescents.

Saphier was nominated by Trump in April after his earlier pick for surgeon general, wellness influencerDr.Casey Means, failed to gain enough traction in the Senate to be confirmed.

Before that, Trump withdrew his nomination of Dr.

As the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s location in Monmouth, New Jersey, Saphier would bring extensive medical experience to the role.

Physician and wellness influencer Casey Means speaks at a Senate confirmation hearing on Feb.26, 2026, when she was the surgeon general nominee.(Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)

She has also authored several books on health and wellness, including “Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis,” published in April 2020, mere months after the COVID-19 pandemic began.

Kennedy later adopted the phrase “Make America Healthy Again” as the slogan for his presidential campaign before bringing it into the Trump administration’s broader public health agenda.

Before being nominated, Saphier openly criticized Kennedy, writing ina Wall Street Journal op-edlast year that she was “deeply concerned” about his approach after he described autism as an “epidemic” and pledged to identify the cause of the developmental disorder by September 2025.

6, 2025, in Greenvale, New York.(Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

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Specifically, she took issue with Kennedy hiring David Geier, a vaccine critic, to analyze CDC data on autism.She called his experience “limited” and said his research has been “widely criticized within the scientific and medical communities.”

A review of the Health and Human Services employment database shows Geier still works at the department as a “senior data analyst.”

“Families deserve more than passionate speeches and fringe science,” Saphier wrote in the op-ed.“If Mr.Kennedy truly wants to be a champion for families facing autism spectrum disorder, he should form partnerships with the nation’s most reputable researchers.”

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