By Ahmed Aboulenein
WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – Wellness influencer Casey Means, a key ally of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., advanced toward confirmation as U.S. surgeon general on Wednesday as senators pressed her on contentious positions on vaccines and birth control.
Means, President Donald Trump’s nominee to be the nation’s top doctor, testified before the Senate health committee, which will vote on advancing her nomination to the full Senate. The Republican majority there is expected to confirm her in a victory for Kennedy and his Make America Healthy Again movement.
Republican committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, a physician and critic of Kennedy’s anti-vaccine stance, on Wednesday challenged the 38-year-old non-practicing doctor about her past vaccine skepticism and pushed her to endorse broad childhood immunization programs, which she did not do.
“I believe that vaccines are a key part of any infectious disease public health strategy,” she said. “Anti-vaccine rhetoric has never been a part of my message.”
Means expressed support specifically for vaccination against measles, which has surged across the country to levels not seen in decades, and other diseases.
She declined to disavow Kennedy’s debunked belief that autism is linked to vaccines, saying individual vaccines have not been shown through science to cause autism, but that science evolves and cumulative use of vaccines should be studied.
“Secretary Kennedy and the Trump administration continue to spread dangerous conspiracy theories of vaccines,” Senator Bernie Sanders, the committee’s top Democrat, said in the hearing. “I am having a hard time understanding how any of this will make America healthy.”
Asked about her previous comments that birth control is overused in the United States, Means said contraceptives should be accessible to all women, but patients should talk to their doctors about the risks of hormonal medications.
She was originally set to appear before the panel in October, but the hearing was rescheduled after she went into labor at 40 weeks of pregnancy. Her infant boy joined her at Wednesday’s hearing.
FINANCIAL CONFLICTS?
Democrats on the panel asked her about potential financial conflicts of interest and promotion of wellness products through her newsletter, The Good Energy Newsletter.
In an analysis of her social media, website and newsletter this month, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen found Means failed more than half the time to disclose financial relationships with the companies whose products she promoted.
Means co-founded health-tech app Levels and holds shares in Truemed, a company owned by her brother Calley Means, a Trump administration adviser on food policy.
She has pledged to resign from Levels and divest her financial interests in both companies should she be confirmed.
TARGETS CHEMICAL EXPOSURE, CHRONIC DISEASE FACTORS
In her testimony, Means vowed to address root causes of chronic disease, which she said were diet, overuse of medicine, lack of physical activity, industrial chemical exposure, chronic stress and loneliness.
Means described the U.S. as being in a public health crisis and blamed sugar consumption for much of that, saying the sweetener “underlies most of the leading causes of death in this country.”
Means is Trump’s second nominee for the role after withdrawing his prior pick, Janette Nesheiwat, in May. Both nominations have faced opposition from far-right activists, including Laura Loomer.
Means graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine but left her surgical residency early. Her Oregon medical license is listed as “inactive,” which Means said was voluntary.
(Reporting by Ahmed Aboulenein; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by David Gaffen, Rod Nickel and Cynthia Osterman)
Comments