By SEUNG MIN KIM and MATTHEW PERRONE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is tapping Dr. Casey Means, a physician-turned-wellness-influencer with shut ties to Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as his nominee for surgeon common after withdrawing his preliminary decide for the influential well being put up.
Trump stated in a social media put up Wednesday that Means has “impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials” – referring to the “Make America Healthy Again ” slogan – and that she’s going to work to eradicate persistent illness and enhance the well being and well-being of People.
“Her academic achievements, together with her life’s work, are absolutely outstanding,” Trump stated. “Dr. Casey Means has the potential to be one of the finest Surgeon Generals in United States History.”
In doing so, Trump withdrew former Fox Information medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat from consideration for the job, marking at the very least the second health-related decide from Trump to be pulled from Senate consideration. Nesheiwat had been scheduled to seem Thursday earlier than the Senate Well being, Training, Labor and Pensions Committee for her affirmation listening to.
Means and her brother, former lobbyist Calley Means, served as key advisers to Kennedy’s longshot 2024 presidential bid and helped dealer his endorsement of Trump final summer season. The pair made appearances with a few of Trump’s greatest supporters, successful reward from conservative pundit Tucker Carlson and podcaster Joe Rogan. Calley Means is presently a White Home adviser who seems regularly on tv to advertise restrictions on SNAP advantages, eradicating fluoride from ingesting water and different MAHA agenda gadgets.
Casey Means has no authorities expertise and dropped out of her surgical residency program, saying she turned disillusioned with conventional drugs. She based a well being tech firm, Ranges, that helps customers observe blood sugar and different metrics. She additionally makes cash from dietary dietary supplements, lotions, teas and different merchandise sponsored on her social media accounts.
In interviews and articles, Means and her brother describe a dizzying internet of influences responsible for the nation’s well being issues, together with corrupt meals conglomerates which have hooked People on unhealthy diets, leaving them reliant on day by day drugs from the pharmaceutical business to handle weight problems, diabetes and different persistent situations.
Few well being specialists would dispute that the American weight loss plan — filled with processed meals — is a contributor to weight problems and associated issues. However Means goes additional, linking adjustments in weight loss plan and way of life to a raft of situations together with infertility, Alzheimer’s, despair and erectile dysfunction.
“Almost every chronic health symptom that Western medicine addresses is the result of our cells being beleaguered by how we’ve come to live,” Means stated in a 2024 guide co-written together with her brother.
Meals specialists say it’s overly simplistic to declare that every one processed meals are dangerous, for the reason that designation covers an estimated 60% of U.S. meals, together with merchandise as numerous as granola, peanut butter and potato chips.
“They are not all created equal,” stated Gabby Headrick, a vitamin researcher at George Washington College’s faculty of public well being. “It is much more complicated than just pointing the finger at ultra-processed foods as the driver of chronic disease in the United States.”
Means has largely steered away from Kennedy’s controversial and debunked views on vaccines. However on her web site, she has referred to as for extra investigation into their security and recommends making it simpler for sufferers to sue drugmakers within the occasion of vaccine accidents. For the reason that late Nineteen Eighties, federal legislation has shielded these corporations from authorized legal responsibility to encourage growth of vaccines with out the specter of expensive private damage lawsuits.
She educated as a surgeon at Stanford College however has constructed an internet following by criticizing the medical institution and selling pure meals and way of life adjustments to reverse weight problems, diabetes and different persistent ailments.
If confirmed as surgeon common, Means could be tasked with serving to promote Kennedy’s sprawling MAHA agenda, which requires eradicating 1000’s of components and chemical substances from U.S. meals, rooting out conflicts of curiosity at federal companies and incentivizing more healthy meals at school lunches and different vitamin applications.
Nesheiwat, Trump’s first decide, is a medical director for an pressing care firm in New York and has appeared usually on Fox Information to supply medical experience and insights. She is a vocal supporter of Trump and shares pictures of them collectively on social media. Nesheiwat can also be the sister-in-law of former nationwide safety adviser Mike Waltz, who has been nominated to be Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
However she had lately come below criticism from Laura Loomer, a far-right ally of Trump who was instrumental in ousting a number of members of the president’s Nationwide Safety Council. Loomer posted on X earlier this week that “we can’t have a pro-COVID vaccine nepo appointee who is currently embroiled in a medical malpractice case and who didn’t go to medical school in the US” because the surgeon common.
Unbiased freelance journalist Anthony Clark reported final month that Nesheiwat earned her medical diploma from the American College of the Caribbean College of Drugs in St. Maarten, regardless of saying that she has a level from the College of Arkansas College of Drugs. The White Home pulled Nesheiwat’s nomination due to doubts about her affirmation prospects, in accordance with an individual conversant in the matter who spoke on situation of anonymity to debate the administration’s reasoning.
“I am looking forward to continuing to support President Trump and working closely with Secretary Kennedy in a senior policy role to Make America Healthy Again! My focus continues to be on improving the health and well-being of all Americans, and that mission hasn’t changed,” Nesheiwat wrote on social media Wednesday.
The surgeon common, thought-about the nation’s physician, oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Well being Service Corps members and may difficulty advisories that warn of public well being threats.
In March, the White Home pulled from consideration the nomination of former Florida GOP Rep. Dave Weldon to guide the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. His skepticism on vaccines had raised issues from key Republican senators, and he withdrew after being instructed by the White Home that he didn’t have sufficient assist to be confirmed.
The withdrawal was first reported by Bloomberg Information.
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