The Senate Health Committee will be holding a confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s surgeon general nominee, health influencer Dr. Casey Means, rounding out the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” Cabinet picks.
The hearing, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 30, will be the first-ever virtual confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee to accommodate Means, who is pregnant.
Means, sister of White House health policy adviser Calley Means, earned her medical degree from Stanford University Medical School in 2014 but did not complete her surgical residency program necessary to specialize and practice in the field.
BIDEN BEGINS NEW PHASE OF CANCER CARE WITH RADIATION AND HORMONE THERAPY
Means has said that she left her residency program with just months remaining because she became “disillusioned with the practice and incentives of surgical care.”
Trump nominated Means in May after withdrawing his initial surgeon general pick, Fox News contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat.
The president said he nominated Means for the position “because Bobby thought she was fantastic,” referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy posted on X after Trump announced her nomination, saying she “was born to hold this job.”
“She will provide our country with ethical guidance, wisdom, and gold-standard medical advice even when it challenges popular orthodoxies,” Kennedy said. “She 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.”
Means is most well-known for her work in the health and wellness space, which aligns well with the MAHA agenda’s skepticism of food corporations and advocacy for a more holistic diet.
REPUBLICANS ARE PUSHING THESE FIVE DEMOCRATS TO FLIP ON FUNDING BILL
Both Casey and Calley Means were on The Joe Rogan Experience last year before the 2024 election, publicizing their book, Good Energy, which recommends alternative medicine strategies and links most chronic diseases and mental health conditions to diet.
Means has reportedly pledged to resign from her position as an adviser to the wellness company Levels Health, Inc., which sells subscription services for blood tests, glucose-monitoring and health coaching.
The surgeon general typically works to educate the public on improving health and reducing the risk of illness and injury, specializing in a handful of key issues at their choosing.
But the office, which also oversees the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, has been highly politicized in recent years.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, surgeon general under both former President Barack Obama and Joe Biden, was criticized by conservatives because the majority of his top issues involved social determinants of health, such as social media use or parental stress, rather than strictly medical problems.
Murthy also spearheaded the campaign to treat gun violence as a public health issue. Just before leaving office in January, Murthy also called for Congress to issue warning labels for alcohol products about the risk of cancer with excess alcohol consumption.
SENATE CONFIRMATION-SCARRED TRUMP NOMINEES FIND OTHER HOMES IN THE ADMINISTRATION
Former Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams, Trump’s first-term pick for the office who has since become a staunch critic of the president and MAHA, lambasted the HELP committee’s decision to hold the hearing amid the government shutdown.
“Hard to believe with the government shut down, the Senate feels confirming someone who never completed their medical training to be the nation’s ‘top doc’ is a priority,” Adams posted on X.
