Dr. Casey Means Under the Microscope As Trumps

On Wednesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held affirmation hearings for President Donald Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means. After Trump rescinded his nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat in early May 2025, he adopted this with Means’ nomination. The Surgeon General affirmation listening to was supposed to happen in October 2025, but Means, who was pregnant at the time, went into labor 5 hours before the listening to was scheduled to start.

Means’ nomination has come under fire, both from those who think about themselves MAHA trustworthy and those who adhere to the company and conventional model of trendy drugs.

“I believe vaccines save lives”. ~Casey Means, MD

Now you recognize what she says about vaccines.

She deserves to be no where NEAR US healthcare in any capacity–same as the relaxation of her profession since quitting residency. https://t.co/aa5fTIXdQu

— Dr Mollie James (@molsjames) February 25, 2026

The Left-leaning Cato Institute considers this cabinet-level place to be a waste of taxpayer assets and feels that Congress ought to get rid of it altogether.

The US surgeon basic has morphed from an apolitical supervisor of medical personnel to a divisive activist who undermines public health. Successive administrations have turned the Office of the Surgeon General into a extremely political platform that opines on divisive non–public health points ranging from gun control and social media to labor and housing coverage. Such mission creep undermines the effectiveness of legit authorities public health actions.

The surgeon basic oversees the 6,000-member Public Health Service Commissioned Corps—a uniformed, noncombatant service that offers personnel for varied federal businesses, including many non–public health roles. The Commissioned Corps takes longer to deploy than civilian alternate options, and many of its capabilities are redundant. A 2010 report from the Department of Health and Human Services estimated that using Corps officers prices 15 p.c more than hiring civilians. Replacing Corps officers with equal civilian staff may save $1.3 billion yearly.

Eliminating the surgeon basic’s divisive political advocacy could be a step toward restoring trust in public health officers. Congress ought to dissolve the Office of the Surgeon General and the Commissioned Corps, get rid of their non–public health actions, and reassign any legit public health actions to other businesses.

Some food for thought. The distinction right here is that the Trump administration has disrupted the idea of conventional authorities, so there’s no purpose to consider this is not going to occur with the function of Surgeon General.  

The over two-hour listening to was largely peaceable. Means got here off as poised, assured, sure of her info and data, and considerate and deliberate in her responses. As my colleague Rusty Weiss documented, the fireworks got here from a testy exchange between Ranking Member Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), where Mullin told Sanders, “You’re part of the system. You’re part of the problem. You’ve been sitting here longer than I’ve even been alive.” 

Glorious to behold because it spoke to some of what the Cato white paper mentioned: that nothing has been resolved in healthcare, so the function of Surgeon General has been used as a political device and a ping-pong ball, relatively than an ally to help Americans toward more improved health.

Mullin also said, “God forbid we change and try to fix a broken system.”

Sen./Dr. Roger Marshall (R-KS) launched Means and said, “We need the Surgeon General, the nation’s doctor, to guide us back to health,” to transfer America from “reactive sick care to proactive healthcare.”

Marshall alluded to past Surgeons General who made a distinction in public health, and communicated generationally so that change may occur in households as effectively as people.

MARSHALL: And that’s what I feel Dr. Means might be. I feel she may transfer the needle. We do have a chronic health epidemic, no one can deny that. And like I said before, we need a Surgeon General who’s more than an educator: we need a coach, we need a communicator, we need a cheerleader to deal with these chronic ailments, and I consider that Dr. Casey Means is the particular person for the job.

Chairman Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), also a medical doctor, grilled Means on vaccines. Means was constant in talking to informed consent and that the advantages and dangers of drugs be clearly outlined by medical personnel.

WATCH:

Surgeon General nominee Casey Means says she shall be a proponent of informed consent for vaccines.

“I think it’s very important as a physician to rebuild trust in public health.”

“And to make sure that sufferers are inspired to have informed consent with their doctor before… pic.twitter.com/IXEQV0zxkG

— Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) February 25, 2026 

Read More: Bernie Sanders Gets Torched in Fiery Hearing: ‘You’ve Been Sitting Here Longer Than I’ve Been Alive!’

President Trump Gives Full-Throated Support to Surgeon General Nominee Dr. Casey Means

The listening to largely danced around precise coverage and implementation of the Surgeon General function, because, as the Cato interview referenced, the function has change into an “all things to all people” place dependent upon the political leanings of the administration under which one serves. 

The Democrat senators have been obsessed with HHS Secretary Kennedy’s stance on vaccines and whether or not Means would push back on this, and a good majority of the senators on both sides have been insistent that, as Surgeon General, Means ought to advocate for or encourage sure medical or societal procedures or features, whether or not it’s vaccines or smartphone use among minors. 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) have been fixated on Means’ entrepreneurial companies and sponsorships, trying to paint Means as somebody who wouldn’t have the public trust because of her different medical direction and online enterprises. Murphy virtually sneered at her about Means’ large Instagram following, and accused her of conflicts of curiosity. Means pushed back on them all, but did so respectfully.

A handful of the Republican senators (Mullin, Marshall, Cassidy, and Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville) really requested questions about how Means would coordinate with the other authorities health businesses, or how Means noticed herself filling the Surgeon General function, and what she deliberate to convey to the desk.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) tried to make an issue over Means’ medical license being inactive. Kim alleged that she may not be succesful of main the Commission Corps, which is required to have up-to-date licensure, and that this lack of an lively license made her less credible to the American people.

Means was by no means combative, but she did push back on Kim’s veiled insult. Means interrupted him,

Senator Kim, I’m a medical doctor. I graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine. I’ve a medical license.

My skilled historical past is a function, it isn’t a bug. I’ve a skilled historical past that has merged entrepreneurship, public health advocacy, college, course direction at Stanford University, as effectively as being the editor of a medical journal and a organic researcher. And in these advanced instances for American healthcare, this kind of multi-disciplinary historical past goes to be extraordinarily invaluable for the American people.

Means tried to additional clarify her intensive practitioner and surgical background and her imaginative and prescient for the Commission Corps.

I actually look ahead to working with the Commission Corps. This is an unimaginable group of 5,000 uniformed officers who are committing their lives to working with the American people — 

Kim tried to shut her down, saying that her lack of lively licensure was a level of concern and ought to be addressed, then shortly yielded back his time. Chairman Cassidy allowed Means to end her response.

This unimaginable group of officers has historically been deployed for public health emergencies like natural disasters and infectious disease, and I feel there’s a big alternative to really work with these members who have an interest in approaching the chronic disease epidemic, which has not historically been a half of their function. And I feel that bringing that perspective, and a demonstrated historical past of work in this space goes to be a actually constructive development for the Commissions Corps.

Sen. Marshall requested how Means noticed herself filling the function of Surgeon General. Means was direct, detailed, and eloquent in her response.

My dream for this function is, first and foremost to help nudge, push,inspire our healthcare systems in direction of focusing on root causes and the causes why we’re getting sick, transferring in direction of a real healthcare system and not just a reactive sick-care system. Which is, of course, also going to decrease prices monumentally and unburden American taxpayers and docs. 

I need to see inexpensive, accessible, real, nutritious food for all Americans because we all know that nutition and food is one of the key, most important drivers of chronic sickness or of health, and we’re not eating real food we’re eating 70 p.c ultra-processed food proper now, and there are structural obstacles to making that doable that good coverage and reforming the healthcare system may repair, and I consider there’s political will and cultural momentum to do so, and I look ahead to being a chief in that. 

And I’d say, lastly, a key ardour of mine is to perceive how the cumulative burden of the exposures we’ve in our surroundings across food, water, air, soil, the merchandise we’re placing in and on our our bodies, how these are affecting our health. We know that these ailments are going up quickly, and of course genetics haven’t modified over the past 20, 30, 40, 50 years — it is environmental exposures that are making us sick, and we’ve not prioritized finding out that. And the NIH and the MAHA motion is concentrated on wanting at this. I feel this goes to be a speedy accelerant of understanding why we’re sick and how to heal.

Means re-echoed the phrases from her opening assertion: “Nothing is more urgent than returning wholeness for Americans, physically, mentally, and societally.”

Editor’s Note: With President Trump back in the White House, the state of our Union is strong once again.

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