The Senate confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s pick for surgeon general, Dr. Casey Means, has been postponed after she went into labor, a spokesperson for the Senate committee set to consider her nomination said.
Means was supposed to appear virtually before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday morning for lawmakers to consider her nomination for the top health role.
If she assumes the role, Means would become the county’s leading public health spokesperson, with the authority to issue health warnings and advisories.
“We are very happy for Dr. Means and her family,” the Department of Health and Human Services said on X. “This is one of the few times in life it’s easy to ask to move a Senate hearing!”
The committee's chairman, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., also congratulated Means and her husband on X.
“There’s no greater reward than being a parent,” he said. “I anticipate rescheduling her hearing when she is ready.”
Means' nomination has stirred controversy: A close ally of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., she has voiced skepticism of traditional medicine and promoted wellness products. She also doesn’t hold an active medical license.
Trump nominated her in May after he withdrew his previous choice, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox News medical contributor.
Trump said he selected Means on Kennedy’s recommendation. She was a campaign adviser during Kennedy’s presidential bid and an architect of his “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
In her 2024 book, “Good Energy,” Means describes having quit her medical residency program after she became disillusioned with the medical system’s focus on managing disease rather than curing patients. She got her M.D. at Stanford University and completed nearly all of her five-year surgical residency at Oregon Health and Science University before she dropped out.
“I walked out of the hospital and embarked on a journey to understand the real reasons why people get sick,” she wrote in her book.
Means’ medical license lapsed in January 2024 — a subject that was expected to come up at the hearing before it was postponed.
Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who served during Trump’s first administration, has argued that completing a residency and holding a valid medical license are implicit legal requirements for the role, since surgeons general oversee the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps — a federal public health branch that requires its own officers to have medical licenses.
Means did not respond to a request for comment ahead of Thursday's anticipated hearing.
Emily Hilliard, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement that Means’ “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.”
Means’ past comments about childhood vaccinations have also garnered attention. In May, she wrote in her newsletter that the “total burden” of the current vaccine schedule is “causing health declines in vulnerable children,” and she linked to a Substack post that suggested vaccines cause autism — a claim that scientific evidence has repeatedly debunked.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is a doctor and proponent of vaccines. During Kennedy’s confirmation process, Cassidy acknowledged his hesitations but wound up providing critical support for Kennedy.
Means also told conservative commentator Tucker Carlson last year that birth control pills are “prescribed like candy.” In her newsletter, she wrote that hormonal birth control has “horrifying health risks.” (Decades of research have shown it’s safe for most people, and serious complications are rare, though some studies have identified a slightly elevated risk of breast cancer in women who have taken birth control pills.)
Those stances, taken together, have generated concern among some public health experts that Means could use her potential pulpit to spread misleading information.
“Casey Means has built her career attacking contraception, vaccines, and women’s autonomy — all while profiting from misinformation and wellness fads,” Dr. Dara Kass, former regional director at HHS in the Biden administration, said in a statement. “The Senate should reject this dangerous, unqualified nominee.”
However, Means has gained popularity in wellness circles because of her messages about outsized corporate influence in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Her book argues that people can “improve and extend their lives” using “simple principles doctors aren’t taught in medical school” — namely, eating healthier, getting more sleep and physical activity and understanding one’s underlying disease risk.
Many public health experts agree that renewed attention on healthy diets and lifestyles is warranted, though some question the particular solutions Means has supported through her work.
Means co-founded a company called Levels, which helps people monitor their blood glucose, and has also sold dietary supplements, teas and other wellness products on social media. An investigation by The Associated Press found that Means sometimes failed to disclose that she could profit or benefit from the sales.
Means signed an ethics agreement in September stating that she would resign from her advisory position at Levels and stop promoting her book, producing her newsletter and putting up monetized social media posts.
Dr. Richard Carmona, who was surgeon general from 2002 to 2006 under President George W. Bush, said he worries about a nominee who didn’t complete her medical training and has never held a leadership role in medicine.
“As a surgeon general, I want to make sure it’s somebody that has the appropriate training, experience, integrity, knowledge to deal with the complexity of this United States and our interface with the rest of the world. There’s no box that she checks that really is germane to the issues we’re dealing with today,” he said.
Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, said Means should be judged by her actions in office, not based on the fact that she didn’t finish residency. If Means is confirmed, Nestle said, she could use her platform to promote healthy diets.
“She could take up ultraprocessed foods. That would be terrific,” Nestle said.
But Nestle cautioned that promoting supplements wouldn’t be backed by scientific research.
“I’m in favor of wellness. I’m not in favor of wellness products, because I don’t think there’s much evidence that they work,” she said.
