Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. found himself grilled intensely on Fox News by Bret Baier on the lack of qualifications for President Donald Trump's new surgeon general nominee, Dr. Casey Means, an alternative wellness blogger who has served as Kennedy's longtime adviser and who possesses none of the typical work experience of a surgeon general.
Means has attracted immediate criticism over the fact that she abandoned her medical residency to promote pseudoscience, including anti-vaccine paranoia, and hawk unproven supplements like "mitochondrial health" gummies.
"She never finished her residency and she doesn't currently have an active medical license," noted Baier.
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But Kennedy remained undeterred.
"She was top, the very top of her medical class at Stanford," said Kennedy. "During her residency, she won every award that she can win. She walked away from traditional medicine because she was not curing patients. She couldn't get anybody within her profession to look at the nutrition contributions to illness. And she said if we're really going to heal people, if we're healers, we can't just make our life about billing new procedures. We actually have to figure out new approaches to medicine."
Contrary to Kennedy's assertion, doctors extensively study and advise patients on nutrition as part of both preventative medicine and as a way of treating or managing conditions when appropriate.
Trump selected Means for the role of surgeon general following the collapse of his previous choice, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, who came under fire from MAGA influencers, including perennial failed congressional candidate Laura Loomer, for fudging her academic credentials and for promoting COVID-19 vaccination during the pandemic.
However, many of those same influencers appear just as disgusted by Means. In response to the nomination, Loomer posted, “How is the top doctor in the US supposed to give medical guidance and advice to the nation when she doesn’t even have an active medical license in the state where she allegedly practiced medicine?” She also went after Means for not supporting Trump and for having a father who wrote a "pro-trans children's book."
