Dr. Nicole Saphier, President Trump’s third pick for surgeon general, faces senators Wednesday in a confirmation hearing that comes as Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak grows and questions mount over her financial ties to an unregulated supplement company. She’s the third nominee Trump has put forward for the post after his first two picks fell apart.
Why did Trump’s first two surgeon general picks fail?
His first choice, Fox News medical contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, withdrew after questions were raised about her academic credentials. His second, Dr. Casey Means, saw her nomination stall after a chaotic path: her first confirmation hearing was canceled at the last minute because she went into labor, and a contentious hearing that followed in February left her support in the Senate too thin for a committee vote. Saphier, a radiologist and director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth in New Jersey, and also a former Fox News Channel contributor, is Trump’s attempt to finally get a nominee through.
What’s the DropRx conflict of interest issue?
Saphier owns DropRx, a company that sells unregulated tinctures containing ingredients like kava kava root, which the FDA has said can potentially cause severe liver injury. Her financial disclosure filing states she’ll resign from her positions with DropRx and its parent company, Empower MD LLC, if she’s confirmed. Senators are expected to press her on why she built a business around supplements the FDA has flagged as risky while seeking to become the government’s top public health messenger.
What else will senators ask her about?
Vaccines are expected to dominate the hearing. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been scaling back federal vaccine guidance even as measles outbreaks alarm the medical community, and lawmakers are likely to press Saphier on whether she’ll push back on that approach or align with it if confirmed. Two other nominees are being questioned at the same hearing: Chris Klomp, up for chief counselor of HHS and effectively Kennedy’s second-in-command, and Timothy Westlake, nominated as assistant secretary for mental health and substance use after serving as chief of staff at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Grant cancellations and the opioid crisis are also expected to come up across all three nominations.
Why does the vaccine question matter so much right now?
Because it’s not hypothetical. Pennsylvania’s measles outbreak has grown to 693 confirmed cases across 38 counties as of this week, with 133 hospitalizations and two confirmed measles-associated deaths, plus a third death under review by the state health department. It’s the worst active measles outbreak in the country, part of a national count that topped 3,000 cases earlier this month. A surgeon general’s public stance on vaccination carries real weight in exactly this kind of moment, which is part of why Saphier’s answers on the topic Wednesday are likely to get more attention than the hearing’s other subjects.
Sources: Click Orlando/AP · Local 10 · NPR/KSMU
Update: Saphier backed the MMR vaccine and rejected the autism link
Update, Sept. 16: Saphier took a notably more pro-vaccine position at Wednesday’s hearing than the administration she’d be joining. Asked directly about autism, she told senators she doesn’t know what causes it but that she has “not seen reputable evidence that would suggest that vaccines cause autism,” aligning herself with the established scientific consensus. She also said she supports routine measles and hepatitis B vaccination.
The sharpest criticism of administration vaccine policy at the hearing came from a Republican. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, a physician who chairs the Senate health committee, used his opening statement to blame the administration’s approach to vaccines for measles deaths in Pennsylvania, saying people had died “because of misinformation and misguided policies.” He also criticized a Trump executive order that breaks up the childhood vaccine schedule, arguing it requires more total shots and leaves children less safe. It was Cassidy who pressed Saphier to state plainly that vaccines do not cause autism.
Update sources: Scientific American · AP via Yahoo · Philadelphia Inquirer
