Dr. Nicole Saphier, President Donald Trump’s latest nominee for surgeon general, defended the MMR vaccine and rejected claims that childhood vaccines cause autism during a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday.

Saphier, a radiologist and former Fox News contributor, would become the federal government’s top doctor and public health spokesperson if confirmed. Her nomination comes as measles cases are surging across the country.

“I believe the MMR vaccine is our greatest tool for combating measles,” Saphier told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Committee Chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., questioned Saphier about Trump’s comments last month suggesting that the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine could be “quite lethal.”

“As a physician, I can tell you that I do not believe the MMR vaccine to be lethal,” Saphier responded.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Saphier would serve under if confirmed, has repeatedly said during his tenure that people should receive the MMR vaccine. “The two-dose MMR vaccine is our safest and most effective tool to prevent this highly contagious illness,” Kennedy said in March 2025.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has continued recommending the MMR vaccine, although the Trump administration eventually favors separating it into three shots. Trump signed an executive order calling for childhood vaccines to be spaced across separate visits during an Oval Office event on Aug. 10, 2026.

Saphier also departed from some of Kennedy’s previous comments about a possible relationship between vaccines and autism. She told Cassidy that she had not encountered reputable evidence supporting such a connection.

“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.”

Kennedy had taken a different position during a 2023 Fox News interview while running for president as a Democrat. “I do believe that autism does come from vaccines,” he told host Jesse Watters.

Kennedy later stepped back from asserting a definitive connection. During his confirmation hearing last year, he said he would “do nothing as HHS secretary that makes it difficult or discourages people from taking vaccines.”

Cassidy, who is also a physician, later asked Saphier whether children should receive the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. Saphier described the vaccine as a tangible method of preventing cancer and supported universal dosing at birth as a means of preventing hepatitis B infection and reducing associated illness.

“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.

Cassidy repeatedly asked whether Saphier supported reversing the Trump administration’s December decision to stop universally recommending the vaccine at birth for babies whose mothers test negative for hepatitis B. Saphier did not directly say whether that policy should be reversed.

During questioning from other senators, Saphier said she would promote early cancer screening as surgeon general. She also said she would review data concerning the harms of flavored electronic cigarettes and study how AI chatbots affect the mental health of children and adolescents.

Trump nominated Saphier in April after his previous nominee, physician and wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means, failed to gain enough support in the Senate for confirmation. Trump had earlier withdrawn the nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, another former Fox News contributor, in May 2025.

Saphier is the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s location in Monmouth, New Jersey. She has also written several health and wellness books, including “Make America Healthy Again: How Bad Behavior and Big Government Caused a Trillion-Dollar Crisis,” which was published in April 2020.

Kennedy later used “Make America Healthy Again” as his presidential campaign slogan before bringing it into the Trump administration’s broader public health agenda. Before her nomination, however, Saphier openly criticized Kennedy’s handling of autism research.

In a Wall Street Journal opinion article last year, Saphier wrote that she was “deeply concerned” after Kennedy described autism as an “epidemic” and promised to identify its cause by September 2025. She specifically objected to his hiring of vaccine critic David Geier to analyze CDC autism data.

Saphier characterized Geier’s experience as “limited” and said his research had been “widely criticized within the scientific and medical communities.” A review of the Health and Human Services employment database showed that Geier remained at the department as a senior data analyst.

“Families deserve more than passionate speeches and fringe science,” Saphier wrote. “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.”