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White House nominates an accomplished radiologist, best-selling author, and outspoken voice for science-based medicine who has spent years challenging the public-health establishment on COVID mandates and one-size-fits-all guidance for American families.
The Independent Medical Alliance (IMA), America’s largest coalition of independent physicians, researchers, and clinicians, today applauded President Trump and the White House for nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier as the next U.S. Surgeon General, calling Dr. Saphier’s track record of evidence-based, patient-first advocacy exactly the kind of leadership American medicine needs.
Director of Breast Imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Saphier brings a combination of front-line clinical experience, federal advisory service, and a national platform for clear, accessible health communication. A Mayo Clinic-trained oncologic imaging specialist, she was appointed to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Breast Cancer in Young Women, and she is the best-selling author of Make America Healthy Again and Panic Attack: Playing Politics with Science in the Fight Against COVID-19, a critique of how political agendas overrode medical judgment during the pandemic.
“Nicole Saphier is exactly who America needs as Surgeon General, a real doctor, treating real patients, who has the spine to tell the truth even when it’s unpopular,” said Dr. Joseph Varon, IMA President and Chief Medical Officer. “She stood up when the so-called experts were telling parents to mask toddlers and vaccinate kindergartners against a virus that posed almost no risk to them. She earned the trust of mothers across this country the hard way, by being right, by being clear, and by refusing to accept a status quo that made no sense.”
Throughout the COVID era, Dr. Saphier was among the earliest physicians to publicly question the wisdom of universal vaccination mandates for healthy children, co-authoring a widely cited Wall Street Journal op-ed with now-FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary urging that such decisions be made by parents and doctors, not bureaucrats. She has been similarly direct in challenging the American Academy of Pediatrics and other establishment bodies whose recommendations strayed from the underlying data, and in calling out federal agencies when their public messaging has outrun the science.
“Dr. Saphier’s nomination continues a significant trend toward restoring scientific integrity, transparency, and clinical judgment at the highest levels of U.S. public health,” continued Dr. Varon.
The IMA has also been at the forefront of reform, and in April 2026, was named a liaison representative to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the first time in the committee’s history that a national coalition of independent, practicing physicians has been seated at the table shaping federal vaccine policy.
