Casey Means has, to say the least, modified her tone. When she testified in the present day in entrance of the Senate’s well being committee, the nominee for surgeon basic didn’t, as she is often wont to do, delve into her experiences with psychedelics or endorse uncooked milk. She additionally didn’t rail at size towards contraception. As an alternative, the longtime well being entrepreneur and influencer emphasised her medical diploma from Stanford—although she doesn’t have an lively medical license—and sought out widespread floor with the senators cross-examining her.
Earlier than her nomination final spring, Means—who dropped out of her surgical residency in 2018—embraced some unconventional theories about wellness. As Rina Raphael wrote for The Atlantic final month, Means has talked to timber, implied that pure disasters are a “communication from God,” and dubbed the nation’s well being “a non secular disaster.” When she appeared on Tucker Carlson’s podcast in 2024, she denounced seed oils and instructed that the widespread use of hormonal contraception was indicative of a cultural “disrespect of life.” She has additionally questioned the common beginning dose of the hepatitis-B vaccine.
In her 2024 e-book, Good Vitality—which Means co-wrote together with her brother, Calley, who’s now a senior adviser to Well being and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and in addition a key determine within the MAHA motion—she advises readers to keep away from faucet water and conventionally grown meals, and to belief themselves fairly than their docs. She recommends getting “one cumulative hour of highly regarded warmth publicity” every week and says that folks ought to optimize their well being through the use of a glucose-monitoring system, which is, helpfully, out there by Ranges Well being, an organization she co-founded.
Means, who didn’t reply to a request for remark, wrote in her September ethics submitting that she would resign from Ranges and forfeit or divest all inventory choices within the firm. However she remains to be listed on Ranges’ weblog as the corporate’s chief medical officer. She mentioned in the present day throughout her listening to that she has spent “the final a number of months working with the Workplace of Authorities Ethics to be absolutely compliant” with guidelines concerning conflicts of curiosity. Senator Chris Murphy additionally pressed Means on her monetary relationships with corporations whose merchandise she has promoted in her e-newsletter, citing an evaluation that discovered that she’d incessantly didn’t make correct disclosures to her readers. “I’ve a robust feeling that the best way by which they gathered this information is finished deliberately to create these claims that you just’re making,” Means testified.
As we speak, Means was far much less outwardly anti-establishment than she has been in her e-book, her e-newsletter, and podcast appearances. For instance, when Senator Patty Murray requested Means to elucidate her earlier anti-birth-control feedback, Means mentioned that she was referring to not contraception usually however to specific girls whose medical historical past may enhance threat from taking contraception. She additionally prevented explicitly besmirching immunizations. “I consider that vaccines are a key a part of any infectious-disease public-health technique,” she informed Senator Invoice Cassidy.
Means had cause to tone it down. Well being leaders, together with former surgeons basic, have questioned her {qualifications} for the place. Dozens of well being and advocacy organizations have opposed her nomination. Peter Lurie, the president and govt director of the Middle for Science within the Public Curiosity, referred to as Means “a digital PEZ dispenser for RFK, Jr.’s misinformation” in a assertion yesterday.
Means’s affirmation listening to additionally comes at a pivotal second for the MAHA motion. Within the run-up to the midterm elections later this yr, Kennedy seems to be shifting his focus from undermining the childhood-vaccine schedule—his least fashionable precedencein accordance with one latest ballot—to battling the meals business, which enjoys broad assist. (The New York Occasions has reported that the White Home desires Kennedy to downplay vaccines forward of the midterms. The White Home and the Division of Well being and Human Companies didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.)
Means’s stance on vaccines in the present day was measured, by MAHA requirements. She mentioned that “vaccines save lives” however hesitated when requested whether or not she agreed with Kennedy’s assertion that there’s no proof that the flu vaccine prevents severe sickness or dying in youngsters. “On the inhabitants degree, I actually assume that it does,” she mentioned lastly. (CDC information point out that the flu vaccine prevents dying throughout all age teams, together with youngsters.) Notably, Means mentioned that “I completely am supportive” of the measles vaccine, however—towards prevailing medical recommendation—declined to advocate it to folks, presumably hoping to keep away from alienating the anti-vaccine wing of MAHA. “There’s a nuanced dialog that American households need to have about shared medical determination making with their docs about particular vaccines,” she informed Senator Angela Alsobrooks—much less of an endorsement than is customary for a surgeon basic or every other public-health skilled, however extra mainstream than her earlier recommendations to observe one’s personal instinct over skilled medical recommendation.
She additionally sought to be a unifying voice on pesticides, which have just lately precipitated a fissure between MAHA and MAGA. Final week, President Trump issued an govt order to spice up the home manufacturing of the weed killer glyphosate, which Kennedy has lengthy insisted causes most cancers, on the grounds that the compound is crucial to america’ meals safety. Key leaders within the MAHA motion regarded the transfer as a betrayal. Not that way back, Means may need additionally been fast to criticize the choice: Final March, she posted on X that “pesticides are a slow-motion extinction occasion.” In her testimony, although, Means was much more conciliatory, telling senators that the problem is sophisticated and that “modifications should be made thoughtfully, with full respect for American farmers and the constraints that they’re below.”
Over the previous a number of weeks, leaders within the MAHA motion and the GOP have been combating over find out how to win the midterms with out angering the factions that make up MAHA. Anti-vaccine activists gained’t be glad till Kennedy follows by on long-favored plans to eliminate the childhood-vaccine schedule. However no less than for now, the secretary appears to be leaning into extra broadly fashionable priorities, reminiscent of condemning ultra-processed meals (he’ll be the keynote speaker at an “Eat Actual Meals” rally tomorrow in Austin). If she is confirmed, Means will discover herself on the heart of a motion that’s within the midst of an identification disaster.
