President Trump’s second selection for U.S. surgeon common has set off a wave of infighting inside the Make America Wholesome Once more (MAHA) motion.
Casey Means is a distinguished well being influencer and ally of Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., however she is seen as insufficiently skeptical of vaccines by a few of his distinguished supporters — and a “total crack pot” by others in Trump World.
Trump selected the Stanford-educated doctor-turned-chronic illness entrepreneur to be surgeon common after withdrawing his first choose Janette Nesheiwat, a former doctor and Fox Information host. Means, like Kennedy, has targeted a lot of her well being advocacy on weight-reduction plan and diet.
“Bobby really thought she was great. I don’t know her. I listened to the recommendation of Bobby,” Trump mentioned of Means. “I met her yesterday and once before. She’s a very outstanding person. A great academic, actually. So I think she’ll be great.”
Nesheiwat’s nomination was withdrawn the day earlier than her Senate affirmation listening to, after media stories referred to as her credentials into query and conservative figures attacked her for praising the COVID-19 vaccines.
Like Kennedy, Means has expressed skepticism about vaccines, promotes meals as medication and is important of the present well being care system. However the choose was unpopular with different well being influencers aligned with Kennedy.
“I can’t help but think this is a very carefully groomed and selected person. Just about no clinical experience. Talks a great game about everything but vaccines. Feels all wrong,” mentioned Suzanne Humphries, a medical researcher who, like Means, has appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast.
“She’s not a health freedom advocate,” Mike Adam, who goes by Well being Ranger, wrote on social platform X. “She’s not a vaccine truther. She’ll by no means suggest pure most cancers cures or treatments. She’s principally cosplaying as a MAHA champion.”
Means grew to become a key affect within the MAHA motion final 12 months alongside together with her brother Calley Means, who works as an adviser to Kennedy in Division of Well being and Human Companies.
They co-wrote the e book “Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health” concerning the connection between metabolism and private well being, and so they promoted their concepts throughout conservative media, together with a success episode of Tucker Carlson’s podcast.
The blowback to her nomination displays the broader tensions inside the MAHA motion, as completely different factions vie for affect within the Trump administration. The surgeon common serves as the general public well being face of the administration and wields a strong bully pulpit, however has little precise authority.
Richard Carpiano, a professor of public coverage on the College of California, Riverside, researches social components affecting vaccine uptake and the anti-vaccine motion. He mentioned Casey Means appears to have failed the purity take a look at amongst some Kennedy supporters, however that public infighting additionally displays the realities and limits MAHA.
“This is really kind of showing or pointing to questions of, you know, to what degree is it really like a movement or is it really just this kind of like brand that that Kennedy is really just trying to push,” Carpiano mentioned.
MAGA influencer Laura Loomer in a sequence of posts on X accused the president’s advisers of poorly vetting the brand new nominee for surgeon common.
She referred to as Means a “total crack pot” and “Marxist tree hugger,” within the publish, pointing to varied different practices Means has written about, together with speaking with spirit mediums and utilizing hallucinogenic mushrooms as medication.
Kennedy’s former working mate, Nicole Shanahan, has additionally criticized Means’s nomination, writing in a publish on X that she was instructed neither of the Means siblings would work at division if she supported Kennedy.
“With regard to these siblings, there is something very artificial and aggressive about them, almost like they were bred and raised by Manchurian assets,” she wrote, including that she suspected Kennedy was being managed.
Kennedy has vehemently defended Means’s nomination.
“The absurd attacks on Casey Means reveal just how far off course our healthcare conversations have veered, and how badly entrenched interests–including Big Food and its industry-funded social media gurus–are terrified of change,” he wrote Thursday on X.
Calley Means on Friday shot again at Loomer, writing on X, “Just received information that Laura Loomer is taking money from industry to scuttle President Trump’s agenda. @LauraLoomer if that’s incorrect, sue me and let’s do discovery.”
Loomer responded by calling him a “PR spin master” and accused him of being “threatened” by her “access to President Trump.”
Casey Means left a five-year residency program on the Oregon Well being & Science College after 4 1/2 years resulting from nervousness and feeling she needed to do one thing completely different, the Los Angeles Occasions reported.
She has since cultivated a big following on-line and is the co-founder of Ranges, a well being expertise firm that focuses on monitoring well being data by gadgets like steady glucose displays.
Those that’ve labored with Means describe her as somebody with a real concern for public well being, notably in the case of younger folks.
Soh Kim, government director of the Stanford Middle for Innovation and Design Analysis, labored alongside Means at Stanford College, educating a meals, design and expertise course.
“She is very rare in terms of, like, her rigorous medical knowledge but also, she is somebody who can, you know, talk to anyone in the class with their level,” Kim mentioned.
However others questioned her {qualifications} for such a high-profile public well being function. Former U.S. Surgeon Common Jerome Adams famous, shortly after Means was nominated, that the surgeon common place has traditionally been required to be held be a licensed doctor.
“As the Senate is considering confirmation, it is important that historical precedent, the ability to effectively lead the USPHS, and the law, are all taken into consideration,” he wrote, referring to the U.S. Public Well being Service, which the surgeon common oversees.
