MAHA leader Casey Means makes bid to become Surgeon General
The Make America Healthy Again movement, which has turned dissatisfaction with mainstream medicine into a disruptive political movement, was poised on Wednesday to put one of its leading figures, Casey Means, at the top of the U.S. medical system.
Means, an entrepreneurial wellness influencer but no longer a practicing doctor, is President Trump’s nominee to be U.S. surgeon general and an ally of health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. At her confirmation hearing before the Senate health committee Wednesday, she sparred with senators of both parties about Kennedy’s changes to vaccine policy and autism research. She also faced questions about her medical credentials, conflicts of interest through her businesses, and her use years ago of psychedelic mushrooms.
The hearing was supposed to take place last October. Instead, she went into labor five hours before the session started. “Our precious baby boy was born on the hearing day,” Casey Means said as she opened her remarks. Now the epitome of a “MAHA mom,” Means invoked motherhood, “wholeness” in health, and tenets of the MAHA movement led by health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
“Nothing is more urgent than restoring wholeness for Americans — physically, mentally, and societally. We are now the most chronically ill high-income nation in the world,” she said. “I have been asked to help our nation get healthy and answer the call of millions — especially mothers — who are begging for transparency and support. That is what I am here to do.”
Praising both the president and Kennedy, Means endorsed federal initiatives to provide “more whole, healthy food; address financial conflicts of interest in our agencies; fund research focused on disease prevention and reversal; and make institutions accountable to the American people with measurable health outcomes.”
With boost from RFK Jr. and Tucker Carlson, two chronic disease entrepreneurs vault into Trump’s orbit
In that sequence she made a notable omission of a MAHA goal that had been in her prepared remarks: “reduce harmful chemical exposure.” Despite his record of suing pesticide makers, Kennedy has been defending Trump’s recent executive order calling for more U.S. production of glyphosate. That position has angered many in the MAHA movement who paint it as a betrayal of promises made.
Asked later about pesticides, Means walked a similar line. “We have developed an agriculture system that is dependent on chemicals that are toxic to have an affordable food supply, and that’s not good for farmers. It’s not good for consumers. It’s a complex issue, and obviously, changing anything overnight would be devastating the American farmer and the American consumer.”
Opening the hearing, both the health committee chair and the ranking minority member brought up vaccines.
“Unfortunately there’s been a lot of promotion of vaccine skepticism,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) went further. “Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration continue to spread dangerous conspiracy theories of vaccines, making it harder for Americans to protect their children from deadly diseases,” he said. “I am having a hard time understanding how any of this will make America healthy.”
Cassidy’s first two questions were about the abortion medication mifepristone and oral contraceptives, before pressing Means on vaccines.
“I absolutely think that oral contraception should be widely accessible, just as I said with mifepristone,” Means said. “I believe that, especially when it comes to oral contraceptives, we need to have patients having a conversation with their doctor about risks and benefits.”
On vaccines, Cassidy asked, “You’re a mom, we’re on the verge of losing our measles elimination status. Would you encourage other mothers to have their children vaccinated against measles with the MMR vaccine?”
Her response echoed what Kennedy has called shared decision-making, which came up numerous times in the hearing, whether the topic was reproductive medicine, vaccination, or antidepressant drugs during pregnancy. Further studies were her recommendation for autism, vaccine schedules, chemicals in the food supply, AI chatbots for adolescents. “I’m supportive of vaccination. I do believe that each patient, mother, parent, needs to have a conversation with their pediatrician about any medication they’re putting in their body.”
On flu vaccines, Cassidy asked if in her role as surgeon general she would advise flu vaccination.
“At the risk of sounding repetitive,” Means said, “I do think it’s very important as a physician and to rebuild trust in public health, to make sure that patients are encouraged to have informed consent with their doctor before getting any medication.”
Then came questions about the widely debunked links to autism.
“Do you believe that vaccines, whether individually or collectively, contribute to autism?”
Means: “The reality is that we have an autism crisis that is increasing, and this is devastating to many families and we do not know as a medical community what causes autism. The administration has just committed a huge amount of funding to look at the exposome of all environmental factors that could be contributing to autism, and until we have a clear understanding of why kids are developing this at higher rates, I think we should not leave any stones unturned.”
Later Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) refuted Means’s previous comments describing hepatitis B as an only sexually transmitted infection, talking about cases spread by mosquito bites in western Alaska and praising the remarkable effectiveness of vaccination at birth. In response Means called once again on shared decision-making.
“My hope is that as you are communicating the value of childhood vaccines that demonstrated, positive results of vaccines just like this would be communicated,” Murkowski said. “And not just everybody needs to consult with their doctor, but if you’re an Alaska Native population that has been systematically impacted in a way that we’ve now seen a marked difference. It seems to me that’s where you should be directing it.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) challenged Means on previous comments saying women were taking birth control pills “like candy.” Means again urged conversations between patients and doctors. “I absolutely believe these medications should be accessible to all women and also, all medications have risks and benefits, and in our current medical climate, with the burden on doctors, doctors do not have enough time for thorough, informed consent conversation.”
While the surgeon general is often called the “nation’s doctor,” the role means overseeing, but not directly supervising, the members of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and speaking for the government on public health issues.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-Conn.) asked detailed questions about her businesses, how she profited from them, and when she did or did not disclose her involvement — accusations she denied and disputed.
“You seem to be in regular willful violation of the FTC rules,” Murphy said. “That is concerning as someone who agrees with Senator Cassidy, that our focus has to be on restoring trust in the medical profession.”
Murphy listed a prenatal vitamin, the lab-testing company Function Health, and Genova Diagnostics. In response, Means said, “I take conflicts incredibly seriously.”
Baldwin described how Genova had agreed to pay $43 million to resolve allegations that it had billed for medically unnecessary lab tests and violated the False Claims Act. Means accepted $10,000 from the company, which she said had a particular test for nutrient quality that she found compelling.
Baldwin then quoted disclosure of $325,000 from promoting supplements since the beginning of 2024, including nearly $135,000 for a longevity supplement, and $46,000 for wellness fees and elixirs, both of which can cost upward of $100 a month for somebody consuming them. The annual fee for Means’ tech health company Levels is $1,500, which Baldwin compared to a month’s rent in Milwaukee.
“Do you really believe that most Americans can afford to spend upwards of $1,500 a year on your supplements and programs?” Baldwin asked. “Is that one of your solutions to our nation’s health problems?”
Means said she thinks every American needs to be wearing a glucose monitor, making a connection between high blood sugar and dementia, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. “My work on using entrepreneurship as a tool to bring and study new tools that can help us understand our blood sugar better.”
Holding up Means’ book “Good Energy,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) quizzed her on the use of illicit drugs, including psychedelics, that she described. “It’s the link to illicit drugs I’m having a hard time with,” Collins said.
“As a private citizen, it is in many cases different than what I would say as a public health official,” Means said. “I think when it comes to psychedelic therapy for mental health issues, I think the science is still emerging, and so it would certainly not be a recommendation to the American people to do that.”
Kennedy’s support for Means and her brother Calley dates to 2024, when Calley Means joined the Trump transition team. In his latest government role he is a senior adviser at the White House, having served in a similar capacity for Kennedy.
The Meanses have drawn criticism for questioning established medical practices. They have disputed bans on the purchase of raw milk, disparaged in vitro fertilization, and opposed the birth control pill (which reflects a “disrespect of life,” Casey said).
She has not publicly disavowed Kennedy’s comments about vaccines, but echoed his call for more research on how the combination of childhood vaccine doses might impact children’s health. She has also criticized the common U.S. practice of administering hepatitis B vaccines to newborns, which began in an effort to curb cases of chronic infection and liver damage. An advisory committee on vaccines newly populated by members who share Kennedy’s criticism of vaccines voted in December to recommend delaying when most babies begin to be vaccinated against the virus.
Some of those positions have alarmed public health groups.
Peter Lurie, a physician and president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, called Means an unqualified wellness influencer and lifestyle blogger. “This is a doctor, after all, who literally advises people not to trust their doctors,” he said in a statement released Tuesday. “That’s a good thing to get people to believe if your income has depended on selling wearables, affiliate marketing for supplements, and the like; it’s also a useful thing to get people to believe when you are joining an administration so intent on taking their health care away.”
In her prepared remarks, Means listed her academic credentials, having earned her M.D. at Stanford Medical School. In other settings she has said she abandoned residency training to become a head and neck surgeon because the medical program lacked training on the root causes of illness. Since then, she has embraced functional medicine, which focuses on holistic approaches to care. Now known as a wellness influencer, she became editor of the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, which she referred to in her opening testimony as “a medical journal focused on prevention and disease reversal.”
STAT Plus: Surgeon general nominee Casey Means discloses financial ties to supplement industry
Her opening statement did not mention by name Levels, the health-tech company she co-founded that links a behavior-tracking app to continuous glucose monitors. She did say it “empowers individuals with metabolic health data to address blood sugar dysregulation — a condition affecting more than 50% of American adults.” And she said diabetes represents “cellular energy collapse” and is “draining our human potential.”
Means still appears on the company’s blog as chief medical officer of Levels. It remains unclear what her current involvement is with Levels, or if she will need to step away or divest from the business if she becomes surgeon general.
She added this to her prepared remarks:
“As I sit here in the early months of motherhood, I feel profound awe at the privilege we have as adults to create a better world for future generations, and that is why I’m here. As Surgeon General, I would call on every American and the Public Health Service to join in a great national healing.”
She also offered her experience as a speaker on chronic disease and author of “one of the most successful health books of the decade,” in which she says personal empowerment, culture change, and policy reform can reverse chronic disease.
“Mental and physical health are unraveling from shared root causes that we can fix,” she concluded. “Dementia, depression, and neurodevelopmental decline reflect a society losing its mind. Our bodies are telling us the current path is unsustainable.”
STAT’s coverage of chronic health issues is supported by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Our financial supporters are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.
No Byline Policy
Editorial Guidelines
Corrections Policy
Source