By ALI SWENSON
NEW YORK (AP) — Dr. Casey Means, a wellness influencer, writer and entrepreneur aligned with Well being Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Make America Wholesome Once more motion, will seem earlier than the Senate well being committee on Wednesday as she seeks approval to be the nation’s surgeon basic.
The Washington affirmation listening to was rescheduled from final October, when Means went into labor the day she was set to look. It’ll give the 38-year-old nominee a possibility to share her imaginative and prescient for ending persistent illness by addressing its root causes, together with by way of dietary and life-style adjustments. It’s a message that dovetails with that of the nation’s well being division, which has shifted its focus away from its controversial vaccine coverage adjustments and towards wholesome consuming because the midterm elections strategy.
However Means additionally will probably face robust questions on her {qualifications} and potential conflicts. The Stanford-educated doctor’s disillusionment with conventional medication drove her to a profession wherein she has promoted a variety of merchandise, at occasions with out disclosing how she may gain advantage financially.
Because the nation’s physician, the surgeon basic is a pacesetter for Individuals and well being officers on public well being points. If confirmed, Means could be empowered to difficulty advisories that warn of public well being threats. She additionally could be tasked with selling Kennedy’s sprawling MAHA agenda, which requires eradicating 1000’s of components from U.S. meals, rooting out conflicts of curiosity at federal companies and selling more healthy meals at school lunches and different vitamin applications.
Surgeons basic even have generally used the workplace to advocate on points associated to vaccination — although the workplace has no function in creating vaccine coverage. Means has principally steered away from Kennedy’s debunked views on vaccines however has referred to as for extra investigations into their security.
Means has no authorities expertise, and her license to observe as a doctor is not at the moment lively. After graduating from medical faculty at Stanford College with a health care provider of medication diploma, she dropped out of her surgical residency program at Oregon Well being and Science College in 2018. She has cited her perception that the well being care system was damaged and exploitative as the explanation for her withdrawal.
Means then turned to various approaches to deal with what she has described as widespread metabolic dysfunction pushed largely by poor vitamin and an overabundance of ultraprocessed meals.
As a result of she had accomplished sufficient postgraduate coaching to acquire a medical license, she did so and began her personal purposeful medication observe in Oregon, which later closed. She co-founded Ranges, a nutrition-, sleep- and exercise-tracking app that additionally can provide customers insights from blood exams and steady glucose monitoring.
Monetary disclosures present she made a whole lot of 1000’s of {dollars} selling well being and wellness merchandise, together with specialty basil seed dietary supplements, teas and elixirs, probiotic merchandise and a ready meal supply service. An Related Press investigation discovered that whereas recommending these merchandise, she at occasions didn’t disclose that she might revenue or profit from the gross sales.
In an ethics submitting, Means stated that if she is confirmed for the submit by the complete Senate, she is going to resign from her place with Ranges and forfeit or divest inventory choices and inventory within the firm. She additionally pledged to cease working for Rupa, a specialty lab work firm for which she developed a web based course. Whereas she might proceed receiving royalty funds from her guide “Good Vitality,” she won’t market it, the submitting stated.
The submitting additionally famous she is going to “not purchase any direct monetary curiosity in entities listed on the Meals and Drug Administration’s prohibited holdings record.”
Not less than two earlier surgeons basic have publicly recommended Means shouldn’t be match for the job.
In an op-ed in The Hill final Could, former Bush administration surgeon basic Dr. Wealthy Carmona wrote that Means’ skilled {qualifications} “elevate important considerations.” Later that month, President Donald Trump’s first-term surgeon basic, Dr. Jerome Adams, wrote on the social platform X that the surgeon basic’s conventional management of the U.S. Public Well being Service Commissioned Corps requires a medical license.
Means is searching for to affix an administration for which her brother, Calley Means, already works. As a senior adviser to the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies, he has helped promote the Republican administration’s message in regards to the risks of ultraprocessed meals.
The nomination for Trump’s first decide for surgeon basic, former Fox Information Channel medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, was withdrawn after she got here underneath criticism from the president’s allies. Means was nominated to the function final Could.
