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Dr. Casey Means attends a confirmation hearing for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the Secretary of Health and Human Services post, at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 29, 2025. Ben Curtis/AP Photo
President Donald Trump’s new nominee to serve as America’s surgeon general is slated to appear before a Senate committee on Oct. 30.
Dr. Casey Means will appear virtually before the Senate Health Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.).
“Chairman Cassidy looks forward to discussing with Dr. Means how she will accomplish President Trump’s mission of delivering radical transparency and restoring trust in our health institutions,” a spokesperson for the committee said in an email to The Epoch Times.
A spokesperson for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the ranking member on the panel, declined to comment.
Trump nominated Means in May, after withdrawing the nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat.
The surgeon general is known as America’s doctor and provides people with health information, as well as being in charge of the 6,000 officers in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. The Office of the Surgeon General is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is currently headed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The health secretary recommended Means to Trump, the president told reporters.
“Casey is the perfect choice for Surgeon General precisely because she left the traditional medical system—not in spite of it,” Kennedy said in a social media post. “Her leadership has inspired many doctors to reform the system and forge a new path away from sick care, which fills corporate coffers, and toward health care, which enriches all of us.”
Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general during Trump’s first term, has frequently criticized actions by health officials in the second Trump administration, including Kennedy’s cutting $500 million in funding for messenger ribonucleic acid products.
Critics have criticized Means as unqualified. Adams, one of the critics, described her as having never completed her medical training.
Means did not respond to a request for an interview.
Means graduated from Stanford Medical School in 2014 and became a surgical resident at Oregon Health & Science University. Means ultimately decided to drop out before finishing the residency because she “grew increasingly disillusioned with the reactive ’sick care' model she encountered” and wanted “to explore the intersection of holistic health and surgery,” according to her website.
Means went on to obtain a medical license and launched her own medical practice in Portland, focusing on a holistic and functional medicine approach.
She later joined the company Levels, eventually ending her practice altogether. Levels provides blood testing and other services that the company says reveal “how your body is actually functioning.”
Means wrote in her book, “Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health,” that one’s health is determined by metabolism.
“I believe Americans know that something is not right when it comes to the health trends of children, adults, and the elderly,” she told The Epoch Times in 2024. “The message of ‘Good Energy’ helps people connect the various dots in why this is so, and I think there is a big appetite for that information. Americans want to be healthy, but the system is set up for poor health.”
Means’s license was voluntarily listed as inactive on Jan. 1, 2024. Means has said the action happened because she does not see patients any longer.
Means has coauthored a number of papers published in journals, including a paper exploring an uncommon syndrome.
“Her credentials, research background, and experience in public life give her the right insights to be the surgeon general who helps make sure America never again becomes the sickest nation on earth,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told The Epoch Times in an email.
