Surgeon General nominee points to western Alaska, where a 1984 vaccine program ended childhood liver cancer

Surgeon General nominee Nicole Saphier told senators Wednesday she supports universal hepatitis B birth dosing, a first dose at birth, citing western Alaska, where she said pediatric liver cancer rates once led the world. The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium reports they did among Alaska Native children, and that newborn vaccination begun in 1984 has left none under 20 since 1993.

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy pressed Saphier to tell parents plainly that vaccines do not cause autism.

Saphier first said she had "not seen repeatable evidence that would suggest that vaccines cause autism." Cassidy pushed back. "The way to dispel confusion is not to sow more confusion. The way is to say no, It does not cause autism," he said. Saphier then said, "I do not believe childhood vaccines cause autism," and called the MMR shot "our greatest tool for combating measles."

Cassidy said coroners confirmed three measles deaths in Pennsylvania.