Trump Surgeon General Nominee Has Neither an Active Medical License Nor the Republican Votes to Get Confirmed

AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File

President Donald Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means, lacks two things generally viewed as helpful for getting confirmed: an active medical license and sufficient votes from Republican senators to move her confirmation forward.

Unsurprisingly, the second seems connected to the first.

Means’s nomination is backed by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who lacks the medical or scientific background normally expected for his role and has taken a number of controversial positions on vaccines and other issues. Means at least graduated from medical school, but failed to complete her residency program and does not have an active medical license. As a result, she is ineligible for board certification or being hired for many positions in hospitals or for other medical providers that entail practicing medicine without the supervision of attending physicians.

Instead, Means has made her living in the “Make America Healthy Again” movement that was a key factor in Kennedy’s political rise and HHS nomination. She co-wrote a book with her brother, Calley Means, that has been criticized for making oversimplified claims about the ability of a diet that avoids processed foods to prevent or treat most medical ailments, and for pushing the highly disputed claim that “medical error and medications are the third-leading cause of death in the U.S.”

Means also peddles wearable medical devices for unproven purposes, like glucose meters for non-diabetics under the guise of metabolic tracking. Interestingly, the Means siblings have been criticized within the MAHA movement for not being sufficiently anti-vaccine, even though Means refused to say during her confirmation hearing if she believes vaccines cause autism or that she would recommend flu and measles vaccines for children.

All in all, Means’s controversial claims and lack of traditional qualifications has soured Republican Senators on her nomination, according to an article by The Wall Street Journal.

Means “currently lacks enough Republican support to advance her nomination, according to people familiar with the matter,” reported the Journal. “The standstill leaves no obvious path for Means to be confirmed.”

She would need to get the support of all Republicans on the Senate Health Committee — the Democrats are expected to unanimously oppose her confirmation — and lose no more than three Republican votes in the full Senate.

Means had a rough time in her confirmation hearing last fall, and was grilled by Senators about income from endorsing medical products, her past use of psychedelic mushrooms, and her views on contraception. Multiple Republicans “sounded skeptical notes” during that hearing, reported the Journal, “and haven’t yet said publicly how they would vote on the nomination, including: Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, the panel’s chairman; Lisa Murkowski of Alaska; and Susan Collins of Maine.”

The Journal noted that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has “said he is leaning toward voting no” on Means’s confirmation and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is viewed as another of the “possible no votes” since he voted against Kennedy for HHS Secretary over his anti-vaccine stances. McConnell survived a polio attack when he was a child.

Collins and Cassidy are both up for re-election this year; Tillis and McConnell have both decided to retire and their terms will end in January. Tillis especially has grown more willing to criticize Trump and members of his administration as his time in office has approached its end.

Cassidy, a physician himself, is facing a tough primary battle with Trump endorsing his opponent. He has repeatedly expressed frustration at multiple policies of Kennedy’s, especially after the HHS Secretary repeatedly reassured the senator during his confirmation hearings that he would not push anti-vaxx policies. When the Journal asked Cassidy if he thought Means would be able to get enough votes to get his committee’s approval, he replied, “I just have nothing to say on that right now.”

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