Trump's Pick For Surgeon General Has Some Wild Views On Vaccines, Birth Control, And Autism That May Make Your Blood Pressure Rise

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that his caller nominee for surgeon wide would beryllium Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer with an inactive aesculapian licence who dropped retired of her residency program.

“Casey has impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials,” Trump wrote successful the announcement, referencing Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” slogan. The president promised that Means volition “ensure a palmy implementation of our Agenda successful bid to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and guarantee Great Health, successful the future, for ALL Americans.”

Trump’s announcement comes a time earlier confirmation hearings were acceptable to statesman with his archetypal surgeon wide nominee, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a household medicine doc and erstwhile Fox News contributor. She’ll enactment with Kennedy “in different capableness astatine HHS,” Trump said.

Here’s what you should cognize astir Means.

Trump says helium doesn’t adjacent cognize her.

When Trump took a reporter’s question astir Means from the Oval Office connected Thursday morning, helium confessed helium doesn’t cognize her.

“Bobby truly thought she was great,” helium said, referring to Kennedy. “I don’t cognize her. I listened to the proposal of Bobby. I met her yesterday and erstwhile before.”

Trump besides boasted that Means “graduated archetypal successful her people astatine Stanford” ― though HuffPost could not find immoderate instances of Means claiming this. Stanford does not publicize its highest world achievers from each class, and erstwhile asked to verify Trump’s claims, the assemblage would lone corroborate that Means finished Stanford undergrad with honors successful 2009 and graduated from its aesculapian schoolhouse successful 2014.

She’s a residency dropout without a aesculapian license.

After finishing aesculapian school, Means dropped retired of her residency ― the multiyear post-graduate aesculapian grooming programme astir doctors request to implicit to get their aesculapian license. 

“There was thing wrong of maine that was whispering and past speaking a small louder, and past yet was a deafening telephone to maine that thing is not right,” she said connected Joe Rogan’s show past fall. 

“When you popular up for conscionable a 2nd and look astir astatine what is happening to American wellness ... it’s a disaster, it’s virtually a disaster,” she continued, explaining her determination to discontinue residency successful caput and cervix country and statesman practicing alleged functional medicine ― a holistic attack to wellness attraction focused connected uncovering the basal causes of disease.

Means’ Oregon aesculapian licence is listed arsenic “inactive” arsenic of January 2024.

Kennedy is already defending Means’ background.

“The attacks that Casey is unqualified due to the fact that she near the aesculapian strategy wholly miss the constituent of what we are trying to execute with MAHA,” helium wrote connected societal media.

Currently, Means runs her institution Levels, a wearable glucose show startup, and promotes her self-help wellness book, Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health.

She’s echoed Kennedy’s vaccine conspiracy theories and autism claims.

Means acold much intimately aligns with Kennedy’s anti-vaccine views than Nesheiwat, who’s praised the COVID-19 changeable arsenic a “gift from God,” though she has pushed backmost against vaccine mandates.

In an appearance connected Megyn Kelly’s podcast past year, Means accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of “jamming a vaccine docket down our throat” and claimed the Food and Drug Administration couldn’t beryllium trusted to modulate vaccines due to the fact that immoderate of its apical employees present enactment successful the pharmaceutical industry.

“We can’t question it oregon other we’re shamed for being terrible, anti-vaxx people,” she continued.

Means besides linked autism and vaccines erstwhile she appeared connected The Joe Rogan Experience, saying, “It’s like, yeah, I stake that 1 vaccine astir apt isn’t causing autism. But what astir the 20 that they’re getting earlier 18 months?”

In an Instagram post past twelvemonth railing against sweetener cereals, Means claimed that autism and different conditions are caused by “artificially colored, toxin infused, pesticide covered Frankenfood that’s poisoning their mediocre small bodies.” 

She’s called commencement power a menace to women’s “life-giving nature.”

Means heavy leaned into immoderate of the anti-reproductive rights movement’s rhetoric astir commencement control, calling its usage a “disrespect of life” during an appearance connected Tucker Carlson’s show.

“You’ve got these medications that are virtually shutting down the hormones successful the pistillate assemblage that make this cyclical, life-giving quality of women,” she said. “We fundamentally told women, ‘These hormones don’t matter. Your quality to make the astir occurrence of immoderate miracles, which is make life, conscionable unopen it down, there’s nary impacts.’”

Means is sounding a canine whistle for the conspiracy mentation that hormonal commencement power usage has a semipermanent interaction connected women’s aboriginal fertility, thing the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has called a “myth.”

Means’ claims could assistance normalize the Republican party’s attacks connected commencement power access. Project 2025 laid retired a pathway to marque it easier for employers to garbage contraceptive sum successful their employees’ wellness plans, and during Trump’s archetypal 3 months successful office, 1 study found, 11.7 cardinal women and girls astir the satellite were denied commencement control due to his dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Kennedy’s moving mate isn’t blessed with this nomination.

Nicole Shanahan, the billionaire Kennedy tapped arsenic his moving mate erstwhile helium was a statesmanlike candidate, has spoken retired against Means’ nomination, saying she made Kennedy committedness her he’d ne'er springiness her oregon her brother, entrepreneur Calley Means, a job.

“I was promised that if I supported RFK Jr. successful his Senate confirmation that neither of these siblings would beryllium moving nether HHS oregon successful an assignment (and that radical overmuch much qualified would be),” she wrote connected X. “I don’t cognize if RFK precise intelligibly lied to me, oregon what is going on.”

She described the siblings arsenic having “something precise artificial and assertive astir them.”

This nonfiction primitively appeared on HuffPost.