The White House has a new pick for surgeon general after pulling its first choice amid questions over her professional credentials and prior support for COVID-19 vaccination.
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday in a social media post that Casey Means, M.D., a health and wellness influencer within the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, is the new nominee.
Means, who received her medical degree from Stanford, dropped out of a surgical residency at Oregon Health & Science University to begin a holistic health practice. She is an author, blogger and a co-founder of Levels, a tech company that tracks metabolic biomarkers via continuous glucose monitors paired with a consumer app.
“Casey has impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials, and will work closely with our wonderful Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Means, in appearances on various talk shows and podcasts, has often highlighted the country’s chronic disease burden and attributed it to nutrition and lifestyle factors as well as the use of chemicals such as pesticides. She has derided the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on public health and criticized her traditional medical education for its limited focus on topics such as nutrition.
Also of note, her brother and co-author Calley Means is a current advisor to RFK Jr.
Means’ nomination as the nation’s top doctor comes as the prior surgeon general pick, Janette Nesheiwat, M.D., was rescinded just a day before her scheduled appearance before Congress—the second such withdrawal of a major health appointee after Dave Weldon, M.D., had his Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director nomination pulled in March.
Nesheiwat, whose nomination was announced in November, came to prominence as a Fox News contributor on medical issues. She came under fire in recent weeks from two separate directions, with questions from the media on her professional credentials and criticisms from those in the president’s sphere on her COVID-19 public health positions.
Nesheiwat had highlighted receiving a degree from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. An April 29 report from CBS News found the claim to be misleading, as the school confirmed Nesheiwat had only completed her residency through its family medicine program. Her degree is from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, located in St. Maarten, where she was enrolled for six years despite the degree typically requiring four years of study.
Meanwhile, right-wing voices including Laura Loomer launched calls for Nesheiwat’s nomination to be rescinded in light of her initial support of the COVID-19 vaccine and other mitigation efforts such as masking during the first years of the pandemic.
Trump, in his post announcing Means’ nomination, added that “Secretary Kennedy looks forward to working with Dr. Janette Nesheiwat in another capacity at HHS.”
Jerome Adams, M.D., who served as surgeon general during the first Trump presidency, said he was concerned about both factors surrounding the rescindment.
“IDK what’s more troubling—the possibility that she may have been pulled because of stigma against foreign medical graduates … or that it may have been for supporting vaccines,” he wrote on X alongside an emoji of a man face-palming. “The [foreign medical graduates] talk is ill informed and troubling. Much of our U.S. medical care (esp rural) depends on foreign grads. And Dr. N completed a U.S. residency (which is where you really learn how to practice medicine anyway). Hoping this doesn’t stigmatize docs who trained outside U.S.”
Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Bill Cassidy, M.D., R-La., have repeatedly introduced legislation that aimed to close loopholes allowing some foreign medical schools, including Nesheiwat’s, to remain eligible for federal funds despite lower-than-required on-time graduation rates.