Who is Casey Means? Trump’s pick for surgeon general faces sharp questions from Senate panel

By Sarah Owermohle, CNN

(CNN) — A prominent voice in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is facing sharp questions from senators in a bid to become the nation’s top doctor.

Dr. Casey Means, best-selling author, wellness influencer and Stanford medical graduate, became an early ally of now-Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA campaign and has several important backers within the Trump administration.

Along with her brother Calley, who serves as an adviser to Kennedy at the Health and Human Services department, Means has championed healthy eating, limited pharmaceutical use and alternative remedies. Means is also a co-founder a health tech company, Levels, that connects glucose monitors to a health tracking app on users’ phones.

Means’ influence made the 38-year-old a recognizable, early advocate of the MAHA movement. President Donald Trump selected Means to be surgeon general last May, the same day the White House withdrew its nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat. Means was originally scheduled to appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last October, but went into labor with her first child in the hours before the hearing. She said Wednesday that her baby boy was born on the day of her original hearing.

In her opening remarks, Means described the “unraveling” of mental and physical health” in the United States, a “nation with a broken heart” and “a society losing its mind” to dementia and depression.

“As a physician, I have always been inspired that the root of the word healing means to return to wholeness,” Means told senators on Wednesday. “Nothing is more urgent than restoring wholeness for Americans, physically, mentally and societally.”

Means immediately faced questions from senators about her stances on mifepristone, one of the pills used in abortion, contraception and vaccines, and comments about her qualifications.

Advocates and some former officials have criticized Means’ nomination because the surgeon general is typically a physician with clinical experience; Means had dropped out of her medical residency program and her Oregon medical license has lapsed. She explained her decision to leave residency in her 2024 book, “Good Energy,” as disillusionment with the medical system and its incentives.

“I felt an overwhelming conviction that I couldn’t cut into another patient until I figured out why — despite the monumental size and scope of our health care system — the patients and people around me were sick in the first place,” Means wrote in the memoir, published in 2024.

Means has critics within Trump’s circle, too. Self-appointed “loyalty enforcer” Laura Loomer has frequently criticized Means, questioning her support for Trump and her qualifications for the job. Loomer also suggested Means could harness the surgeon general position to tip federal policies in favor of commercial interests in which she has personal stakes, such as her tech company.

Means said in her financial disclosures that she left her position with Levels in 2023, and would divest any interest in the company.

Means on vaccines, contraception, pesticides

Means testifies during a fraught moment for the administration’s health agenda. A string of high-profile departures and shakeups have renewed questions about the direction of vaccine policy under Kennedy. An ongoing measles outbreak, already the largest since the US declared the disease eliminated, is threatening to reach 1,000 cases in the near future. Republican senators, including health committee chairman Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, have publicly pressured the administration to curb access to abortion pills. MAHA advocates, meanwhile, are railing against Trump’s executive order to shielding pesticide manufacturers.

While the role of surgeon general does not carry policy or regulatory authority, surgeons general often help shape the national health conversation and build public momentum for policy change. Most famously, past surgeons general led the push to add warning labels to cigarettes.

Means has advocated for “unbiased research” into the childhood vaccine schedule and questioned the safety of giving a hepatitis B vaccine shortly after birth.

“I bet that one vaccine probably isn’t causing autism, but what about the 20 that they’re getting before 18 months?” she said on Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2024. While Means’ comments echo the skepticism of Kennedy and others in the administration, there is no evidence linking the childhood vaccine schedule to autism diagnoses.

On Wednesday, Means said “anti-vaccine rhetoric has never been a part of my message.” She added, “don’t think it’s responsible to say that we’re not going to study when kids are getting many medications.”

In response to questions on Wednesday about abortion and the pill, mifepristone, that has prompted Republicans’ ire and multiple lawsuits about prescribing it remotely, Means said “all patients need to have a thorough conversation with their doctor and have true informed consent before taking any medication.” She said the current health care system often doesn’t allow that.

The nominee also said “oral contraception should be widely accessible,” but said patients need “informed consent before getting on a medication that’s often prescribed for several years without follow up.”

In the past, Means has said widespread contraception use is a sign that “we have lost respect for life,” as she said on Tucker Carlson’s show in August 2024.

Those comments brought consternation from public health advocates, such as Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, who told CNN last year that she is unqualified for the surgeon general position.

Means will also testify as MAHA acolytes rally for the administration to take strong action against pesticides such as widely used glyphosate, commonly known by the brand name Roundup.

In that arena, MAHA could have an ally in Means, who has likened widespread pesticide use to the damage she sees from long-term contraception.

“You’ve got the pill, and it just goes hand in hand with the rise … of industrial agriculture, the spraying of these pesticides,” she said on Carlson’s show. “The things that give life in this world, which are women and soil, we have tried to dominate and shut down the cycles.”

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