The Senate hearing for Dr. Casey Means, President Donald Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed because she has gone into labor, according to a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee spokesperson.
The confirmation hearing was slated to be the committee’s first in which the nominee would have appeared virtually, because of her pregnancy. It is not yet clear when the hearing will be rescheduled.
Means, a health and wellness influencer, has been a controversial choice for surgeon general, a position that is considered the nation’s “top doctor.”
Means earned her medical degree from Stanford University Medical School in 2014 but did not complete her surgical residency, saying that she became “disillusioned with the practice and incentives of surgical care.”
Along with her brother Calley Means, currently White House health policy advisor, Means authored the book Good Energy last year, which recommends alternative medicine strategies and links most chronic diseases and mental health conditions to diet.
Trump nominated Means in May after withdrawing his initial nomination, Fox News Contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat. He said at the time that he selected Means “because Bobby thought she was fantastic,” referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy said upon the announcement that Means will be an asset to his Make America Healthy Again agenda and “will be a juggernaut against the ossified medical conventions that have helped make our people the sickest in the world at the highest cost per capita.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the health committee, posted on X on Wednesday afternoon a congratulatory message for Means and her husband welcoming their first child.
“There’s no greater reward than being a parent. I anticipate rescheduling her hearing when she is ready,” Cassidy said.
HHS Spokesperson Emily Hilliard shared the Department’s best wishes for Means with the Washington Examiner via email.
“Everyone is happy for Dr. Means and her family. This is one of the few times in life when it’s easy to ask to move a Senate hearing,” Hilliard said.
Means has received significant pushback in recent weeks leading up to her confirmation hearing for some of her unorthodox views.
The Advancing American Freedom Foundation, run by former Vice President Mike Pence, issued a memo earlier this week calling Means “fundamentally unqualified to serve as surgeon general.”
AAF highlighted a handful of Means’s blog posts in which she related that she has tried psilocybin, commonly referred to as psychedelic mushrooms, and has embraced certain “indigenous wisdom” practices, such as full moon ceremonies and talking with trees.
Trump’s first-term Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who has called for Kennedy to resign or be fired, has lambasted Means as well, disparaging her for neither completing her training nor having a valid medical license.
Hilliard told the Washington Examiner that Means’s “scientific credentials are not in question,” citing her previous research positions at NIH, Stanford, NYU, and Oregon Health and Science University, as well as her peer-reviewed publications.
“Her credentials, research background, and experience in public life give her the right insights to be the surgeon general who helps make sure America never again becomes the sickest nation on earth,” Hilliard said.
But Means has also drawn criticism from MAHA advocates, including Kennedy’s former running mate during his 2024 presidential campaign, Nicole Shanahan.
Shanahan told radio host Glenn Beck in May when Means was nominated that she was concerned about her conflicts of interest, as she has heavily invested in companies that harvest patients’ biometric data, or sensitive health information from wearables, glucose monitors, and other devices.
“MAHA really came from medical and medical sovereignty, and the idea that we have to keep conflicts of interest out of the government,” said Shanahan. “Our job is to continue to seek the best possible for government that are truly putting the principles of this country first.”
