Casey Means: influencer, RFK Jr favourite – and Trump’s pick out for surgeon basic

Donald Trump nominated Casey Means, a wellness influencer and scientific physician with an inactive license for US surgeon basic this week – his 2nd nominee to function “the nation’s doctor”.

Trump all of a sudden withdrew his first nominee, Dr Janette Nesheiwat, earlier than her Senate affirmation listening to, amid grievance from the best and confusion about her scientific credentials.

His new nominee, Means, is a 37-year-old Los Angeles-based scientific entrepreneur who shot to prominence in right-leaning wellness circles via criticizing mainstream drugs and advocating for a more fit meals provide.

In a social media put up, Trump mentioned that Means “has impeccable ‘Maha’ credentials”.

Means’s nomination is a testomony to the affect of well being secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr within the management. Just an afternoon after Trump nominated Means, he instructed journalists: “I don’t know her. I listened to the recommendation of Bobby.”

Kennedy is the figurehead of “Make America Health Again” (Maha), a loosely outlined wellness motion embraced via the best along vaccine skepticism, new meals politics and grievance of the scientific status quo.

Means’s brother, self-described former meals lobbyist Calley Means, already works for the management. He serves as a senior adviser to Kennedy and as one of the vital secretary’s main on-line mudslingers.

However, main hurdles stay for Means’s nomination – together with her inactive scientific license and grievance from the similar rightwing forces that helped tank Trump’s first nominee.

“We should not toss out the window everything Casey is saying, but I would proceed with caution given her training,” mentioned Prof Gabby Headrick, as assistant professor and director of diet methods at George Washington University’s Milken School of Public Health.

“Typically and historically, the person appointed to that role and confirmed is someone who has an active medical license, someone who has completed residency, and has held a leadership role in a medical institution. Casey Means does not have the resumé … She also is not trained in nutrition.”

Means additionally faces opposition from the a long way appropriate. Activist Laura Loomer, who used to be essential of Trump’s first nominee, is skeptical of Means – calling her “unfit” for surgeon basic and selling occasions with Means’s critics.

Loomer in the past described Nesheiwat as “a pro-Covid vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case”. Covid vaccines and the generation that underpins them have develop into a goal of right-leaning politicians.

Similarly, anti-vaccine activists have sought to reassure the “medical freedom” base of Means’s bone fides. The anti-vaccine activist John Leake argued in a publication: “I have not seen any evidence that Casey Means is serving the vaccine cartel with her stated objective of scrutinizing the food supply.”

Means describes herself as a “medical doctor, New York Times bestselling author, tech entrepreneur … aspiring regenerative gardener, and outdoor enthusiast who lives in a state of awe for the miracle and mystery of existence and consciousness”.

She and her brother wrote a bestselling ebook referred to as Good Energy: the Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health. The pair shot to reputation at the political appropriate across the time that Kennedy dropped out of the race and counseled Trump. They started to appear at Maha occasions, on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s podcast, on The Joe Rogan Show and on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.

Casey Means’s public statements about how Americans must be cautious about microplastics and agricultural chemical substances and the significance of natural produce may just simply function liberal dinner-party chatter. They additionally display how Maha has followed issues as soon as thought to be the kingdom of the left.

“The thing that is so imperative for people to understand is that the reasons we’re having surgery, the reasons why we’re getting sick, the reasons American competitiveness is plummeting, the reasons why our kids are chronically ill … are all from preventable issues,” Means instructed Carlson.

Means has followed extra inflammatory sides of Kennedy’s time table – together with wondering the worth of vaccines and criticizing Ozempic, the blockbuster weight-loss drug.

“I bet that one vaccine probably isn’t causing autism. But what about the 20 that they’re getting before 18 months?” she mentioned on Rogan’s podcast.

Nutrition mavens corresponding to Headrick have applauded Good Energy for its effort to lift illness prevention. But Means ignores the “root causes” of persistent prerequisites, she says.

“Not once in this book does Casey Means point out that millions of Americans do not have access to a full-service grocery store,” mentioned Headrick.

Means graduated from Stanford University in 2014 with a scientific stage, and attended residency at Oregon Health & Science University the following yr, however she left in 2018 earlier than the five-year program completed. She mentioned she left as a result of she become dissatisfied with drugs, whilst professors and previous classmates mentioned it used to be because of rigidity and anxiousness, in step with the LA Times. Her scientific license lapsed in 2024, in line with the Oregon scientific board.

By 2019, she and a couple of others based Levels, a trade founded round promoting steady glucose screens and a subscription well being monitoring app. The units, as soon as to be had most effective to diabetics, have develop into standard within the “bio-hacking” motion. Such apps additionally accumulate reams of knowledge on their consumers, a treasured asset.

“I am terrified about any company having this granular a look at my life and my medical information,” mentioned Albert Fox Cahn, govt director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.

“This should be someone committed to protecting [and] promoting public health, and I’m terrified to see this administration double down on its willingness to treat health as just another commodity.”

One of her co-founders is Sam Corcos, who has develop into a key determine in billionaire Elon Musk-led “department of government efficiency” within the Internal Revenue Service. The unofficial division helped get rid of greater than 280,000 federal staff, together with just about 1 / 4 of the federal well being group of workers. The corporate’s backers have additionally integrated Trump advisers.

Similarly, Calley Means has additionally invested in well being generation. He co-founded TrueMed, a trade that is helping folks acquire wellness units – together with Levels glucose screens – via taxpayer-subsidized well being financial savings accounts (HSAs) and versatile spending accounts (FSAs). About one-in-five Americans has get right of entry to to an HSA, in line with the American Bankers Association. Republicans have proposed increasing the accounts for many years.

Although Means’s loss of a scientific license would in most cases be disqualifying, well being regulation mavens mentioned they wouldn’t rule out the management making an attempt an end-run across the requirement.

“A medical license requires that the individual maintains her medical knowledge through mandatory continuing medical education,” Gostin instructed NPR. “She is not licensed and therefore should be ineligible to become surgeon general of the United States.”