Overview
- Trump withdrew Casey Means and named Nicole Saphier on Thursday after concluding Means lacked the votes to advance out of the Senate health committee.
- Means faced bipartisan doubts over her experience, including an inactive medical license and an unfinished residency, and Sen. Bill Cassidy pressed her on vaccines during a Feb. 25 hearing.
- Trump publicly blamed Cassidy for blocking Means and urged Louisiana Republicans to vote him out in a primary.
- Saphier is director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Monmouth facility and a former Fox News contributor who supports vaccination yet criticized COVID-era mandates and questioned the birth-dose hepatitis B shot.
- The nomination now moves to the Senate, and the surgeon general can issue public health advisories and lead the 6,000-officer Public Health Service, so the pick could shape how the administration communicates on vaccines and chronic disease.