Trump’s atypical surgeon general pick faces Senate scrutiny: Key takeaways
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5755656-casey-means-senate-confirmation-hearing-takeaways/
"... Means would be an unprecedented pick, not having completed her medical residency or having an active medical license. She is the sister of White House senior adviser Calley Means, one of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s top advisers, and a prominent “Make America Healthy Again” influencer in her own right.
Former surgeons general have spoken out against her nomination. Trump’s former Surgeon General Jerome Adams said of Means, “I feel strongly that the person who is leading America’s Public Health Service should be held to the same standard as the people he or she is leading.”
MAHA, Subdued
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/02/casey-means-confirmation-maha-subdued/686147/
"The nominee for surgeon general kept her most eccentric wellness beliefs largely in check at her confirmation hearing.
Casey Means has, to say the least, modified her tone. When she testified today in front of the Senate’s health committee, the nominee for surgeon general didn’t, as she is normally wont to do, delve into her experiences with psychedelics or endorse raw milk. She also did not rail at length against birth control. Instead, the longtime health entrepreneur and influencer emphasized her medical degree from Stanford—even though she does not have an active medical license—and sought out common ground with the senators cross-examining her.
Before her nomination last spring, Means—who dropped out of her surgical residency in 2018—embraced some unconventional theories about wellness. As Rina Raphael wrote for The Atlantic last month, Means has talked to trees, implied that natural disasters are a “communication from God,” and dubbed the nation’s health “a spiritual crisis.” When she appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in 2024, she denounced seed oils and suggested that the widespread use of hormonal birth control was indicative of a cultural “disrespect of life.” She has also questioned the universal birth dose of the hepatitis-B vaccine...'
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