Trump’s pick for surgeon general sells supplement with ingredient banned by Pentagon

Trump’s pick for surgeon general sells supplement with ingredient banned by Pentagon

Michelle R Smith

Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general sells an herbal supplement that contains an ingredient prohibited by the US military and which health experts have warned can cause liver damage.

Dr Nicole Saphier’s record of selling dietary supplements, which are only loosely regulated in the US, has raised concern among doctors and consumer advocates, some of whom allege she sells “snake oil”.

Amazon said it had opened an investigation into the products after the Guardian inquired whether they were in compliance with the company’s policies on supplement sales.

“Nobody who prides themselves as rigorous about science is in the supplement business,” said Dr Peter Lurie of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food and health watchdog organization. Lurie has been an outspoken critic of what he called wellness industry “grifters” inside health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement, who he said sold consumers poorly regulated supplements with unsupported claims.

The surgeon general is considered America’s doctor, responsible for communicating the best scientific information to Americans about how to improve their health. Previous surgeons general have issued influential warnings on tobacco use and educated the public about Aids.

Saphier specializes in breast cancer as a radiologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New Jersey and is a former contributor to Fox News. She is Trump’s third pick for the job after his first two failed to advance in the Senate.

Saphier and her company, Drop RX, did not respond to several emails seeking comment.

“Dr Nicole Saphier is an accomplished physician who has practiced radiology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and has been an outspoken voice on breast cancer prevention, intrusive COVID-19 mandates, the politicization of science, and the federal government’s role in America’s chronic disease epidemic,” the White House spokesperson Kush Desai wrote in an email. “She will be a powerful asset for President Trump and work tirelessly to deliver on every facet of his Maha agenda.”