Means’ nomination was introduced on Wednesday after Trump withdrew his nomination of Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a former Fox Information contributor whose résumé has been questioned in current weeks.
“Casey has impeccable ‘MAHA’ credentials, and can work carefully with our fantastic Secretary of Well being and Human Providers, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to make sure a profitable implementation of our Agenda to be able to reverse the Persistent Illness Epidemic, and guarantee Nice Well being, sooner or later, for ALL Individuals,” Trump wrote on Fact Social.
Nonetheless, on Thursday when requested by a reporter why he selected Means, Trump admitted: “I don’t know her, I listened to the advice of Bobby.”
Means, the White Home, and Kennedy didn’t reply to requests for touch upon the criticism in regards to the nomination.
A spokesperson for HHS pointed WIRED to a submit on X by Kennedy, wherein he defended Means and urged the criticism was coming from Large Pharma: “I’ve little doubt that these firms and their conflicted media retailers will proceed to pay bloggers and different social media influencers to weaponize innuendo to slander and vilify Casey, the identical means they attempt to defame me and President Trump,” Kennedy wrote.
When requested which criticism particularly Kennedy was referencing, HHS didn’t reply.
In an interview on the Fox Information broadcast on Thursday night, Kennedy dismissed Shanahan’s claims he was not directly managed, saying that “your complete management of this company are renegades who’re juggernauts in opposition to conference.”
The place of surgeon common is described by the HHS as “the nation’s physician,” tasked with “offering Individuals with one of the best scientific data obtainable on how you can enhance their well being and cut back the chance of sickness and damage.”
However many inside the mainstream medical career have raised severe questions on Means’ capacity to fulfil this function, given the 37-year-old’s lack of credentials.
Means has not held an lively license to observe drugs since 2019, and regardless of calling herself a “former surgeon” on her LinkedIn, Means by no means accomplished her surgical coaching at Oregon Well being and Science College, dropping out a bit over 4 years right into a five-year residency.
Means can also be a proponent of “purposeful drugs,” a holistic method to drugs that’s seen by many as pseudoscience due to the shortage of sturdy scientific proof to again up remedies and claims.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Means wrote on Twitter that “many (if not most) Covid-19 deaths might be prevented w optimum metabolic well being.” In an op-ed revealed by The Hill throughout the top of the pandemic, Means appeared to place the blame for individuals’s deaths on their poor dietary selections, calling Covid-19 “a Darwinian second for America” and including that “Individuals should construct private immunity defenses via radical modifications in eating regimen and train, or threat getting sick and dying.”
She additionally seems to be in opposition to hormonal contraception, telling Tucker Carlson that suppressing the menstrual cycle displays “a disrespect of life.”
And regardless of the anger of main anti-vaccine activists, Means has repeatedly voiced fringe and disproven views on the subject.
