U.S. President Donald Trump is tapping Dr. Casey Means, a physician-turned-wellness influencer with shut ties to Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as his nominee for surgeon normal after withdrawing his preliminary decide for the influential well being submit.
Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that Means has “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials” — referring to the “Make America Wholesome Once more” slogan — and that she’s going to work to eradicate continual illness and enhance the well being and well-being of Individuals.
“Her educational achievements, collectively along with her life’s work, are completely excellent,” Trump stated. “Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of many most interesting Surgeon Generals in United States Historical past.”
In doing so, Trump withdrew former Fox Information medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat from consideration for the job, marking at the very least the second health-related decide from Trump to be pulled from Senate consideration. Nesheiwat had been scheduled to seem earlier than the U.S. Senate Well being, Training, Labour and Pensions Committee Thursday for her affirmation listening to.
Means and her brother, former lobbyist Calley Means, served as key advisers to Kennedy’s longshot 2024 presidential bid and helped dealer his endorsement of Trump final summer time. The pair made appearances with a few of Trump’s largest supporters, successful reward from conservative pundit Tucker Carlson and podcaster Joe Rogan.
Calley Means is at present a White Home adviser who seems regularly on tv to advertise restrictions on meals advantages for low-income households, eradicating fluoride from ingesting water and different MAHA agenda gadgets.
No authorities expertise
Casey Means has no authorities expertise and dropped out of her surgical residency program, saying she turned disillusioned with conventional drugs. She based a well being tech firm, Ranges, that helps customers observe blood sugar and different metrics. She additionally makes cash from dietary dietary supplements, lotions, teas and different merchandise sponsored on her social media accounts.
In interviews and articles, Means and her brother describe a dizzying internet of influences in charge for the nation’s well being issues, together with corrupt meals conglomerates which have hooked Individuals on unhealthy diets, leaving them reliant on every day medicines from the pharmaceutical trade to handle weight problems, diabetes and different continual situations.
Few well being specialists would dispute that the American weight-reduction plan — filled with processed meals — is a contributor to weight problems and associated issues. However Means goes additional, linking adjustments in weight-reduction plan and way of life to a raft of situations together with infertility, Alzheimer’s, despair and erectile dysfunction.
“Virtually each continual well being symptom that Western drugs addresses is the results of our cells being beleaguered by how we have come to stay,” Means stated in a 2024 guide co-written along with her brother.
Meals specialists say it is overly simplistic to declare that every one processed meals are dangerous, because the designation covers an estimated 60 per cent of U.S. meals, together with merchandise as various as granola, peanut butter and potato chips.
“They aren’t all created equal,” stated Gabby Headrick, a diet researcher at George Washington College’s faculty of public well being. “It’s way more sophisticated than simply pointing the finger at ultra-processed meals as the driving force of continual illness in america.”
Means has largely steered away from Kennedy’s controversial and debunked views on vaccines. However on her web site, she has known as for extra investigation into their security and recommends making it simpler for sufferers to sue drugmakers within the occasion of vaccine accidents. For the reason that late Nineteen Eighties, federal legislation has shielded these firms from authorized legal responsibility to encourage improvement of vaccines with out the specter of pricey private harm lawsuits.
She skilled as a surgeon at Stanford College however has constructed a web-based following by criticizing the medical institution and selling pure meals and way of life adjustments to reverse weight problems, diabetes and different continual ailments.
If confirmed as surgeon normal, Means can be tasked with serving to promote Kennedy’s sprawling MAHA agenda, which requires eradicating 1000’s of components and chemical substances from U.S. meals, rooting out conflicts of curiosity at federal businesses and incentivizing more healthy meals at school lunches and different diet applications.
Laura Loomer criticized prior nominee
Nesheiwat, Trump’s first decide, is a medical director for an pressing care firm in New York and has appeared recurrently on Fox Information to supply medical experience and insights. She is a vocal supporter of Trump and shares images of them collectively on social media. Nesheiwat can be the sister-in-law of former nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz, who has been nominated to be Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
However she had not too long ago come underneath criticism from Laura Loomer, a far-right ally of Trump who was instrumental in ousting a number of members of the president’s Nationwide Safety Council. Loomer posted on X earlier this week that “we will not have a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee… who did not go to medical faculty within the US” because the surgeon normal.
Unbiased freelance journalist Anthony Clark reported final month that Nesheiwat earned her medical diploma from the American College of the Caribbean Faculty of Drugs in St. Maarten, regardless of saying that she has a level from the College of Arkansas Faculty of Drugs.
The White Home pulled Nesheiwat’s nomination due to doubts about her affirmation prospects, in keeping with an individual aware of the matter who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate the administration’s reasoning.
“I’m trying ahead to persevering with to help President Trump and dealing carefully with Secretary Kennedy in a senior coverage function to Make America Wholesome Once more! My focus continues to be on bettering the well being and well-being of all Individuals, and that mission hasn’t modified,” Nesheiwat wrote on social media Wednesday.
The surgeon normal, thought of the nation’s physician, oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Well being Service Corps members and may situation advisories that warn of public well being threats.
In March, the White Home pulled from consideration the nomination of former Florida Republican Rep. Dave Weldon to guide the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. His skepticism on vaccines had raised considerations from key Republican senators, and he withdrew after being advised by the White Home that he didn’t have sufficient help to be confirmed.
The withdrawal was first reported by Bloomberg Information.
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