NEW YORK (AP) — Casey Means, a Stanford-educated physician who rose to popularity as a wellness influencer after becoming disillusioned with traditional medicine, will face senators Thursday as she seeks approval to be the nation’s surgeon general.
Means, who is pregnant, is set to appear virtually for her confirmation hearing before the Senate health committee. She is expected to share a vision for ending chronic disease by targeting its root causes, an idea that aligns with the Make America Healthy Again message of her close ally, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The 38-year-old author and entrepreneur will also be tasked with defending her credibility after concerns surfaced about her qualifications and potential conflicts.
As the nation’s doctor, the surgeon general is a leader for Americans and health officials on public health issues. If confirmed, Means will represent an administration that has already transformed the public health landscape by calling for increased scrutiny of vaccines, the nation’s food supply, pesticides and prescription drugs.
Means has no government experience, and her license to practice as a physician is inactive. Though she went to medical school at Stanford University, she dropped out of her surgical residency program at Oregon Health and Science University in 2018. She later cited her belief that the health care system was broken and exploitative as the reason for her withdrawal.
Means then turned to alternative approaches to address what she has described as widespread metabolic dysfunction driven largely by poor nutrition and an overabundance of ultra-processed foods. She co-founded Levels, a nutrition, sleep and exercise-tracking app that can also give users insights from blood tests and continuous glucose monitors.
Financial disclosures show she has made hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting health and wellness products, including specialty basil seed supplements, teas and elixirs, probiotic products and a prepared meal delivery service.
An Associated Press investigation found that while recommending these products, she at times failed to disclose that she could profit or benefit from the sales.
In an ethics filing, Means said that if she is confirmed for the post by the full Senate, she will resign from her position with Levels and forfeit or divest stock options and stock in the company. She also pledged to stop working for Rupa, a specialty lab work company for which she developed an online course. While she may continue receiving royalty payments from her book “Good Energy,” she will not promote it, the filing said.
The filing also noted she will “not acquire any direct financial interest in entities listed on the Food and Drug Administration’s prohibited holdings list.”
As surgeon general, Means would oversee 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members and could issue advisories that warn of public health threats.
She would also be tasked with helping promote Kennedy’s sprawling MAHA agenda, which calls for removing thousands of additives and chemicals from U.S. foods, rooting out conflicts of interest at federal agencies and incentivizing healthier foods in school lunches and other nutrition programs.
She’d also be free to use the office to advocate on issues related to vaccination — though she would have no role in creating or implementing vaccine policy. Means has mostly steered clear of Kennedy’s controversial and debunked views on vaccines, but she has called for more investigations into their safety.
The nomination for President Donald Trump’s first pick for surgeon general, former Fox News medical contributor Janette Nesheiwat, was withdrawn after she came under criticism from the Republican president’s allies.
Stephen Lewerenz, a spokesperson for the Senate health committee chairman, Bill Cassidy, said the Louisiana Republican looks forward to discussing with Means how she’ll “accomplish Trump’s mission of delivering radical transparency and restoring trust in our health institutions.”
