President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, Casey Means, faces trouble after at least four Republican senators raised doubts about her medical credentials, vaccine positions, and questionable guidance she’s offered as a wellness influencer, according to reporting from The Washington Post.
Senators Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) all voiced concerns about her suitability during a confirmation hearing last month and appear to remain unconvinced. The opposition of a single one of those senators could be sufficient to prevent her nomination from moving past the Senate Health Committee.
Means, nominated more than 10 months ago, is a well-known wellness influencer tied to the Make America Health Again movement and a close ally of anti-vaccine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., its founder. During the hearing, senators questioned Means about her stance on vaccines — including influenza and measles shots and the hepatitis B vaccine given to newborns. She largely sidestepped the queries, declined to clearly endorse those life-saving vaccinations, and stopped short of directly contradicting Kennedy’s anti-vaccine assertions and misinformation.
After the hearing, Senators Collins and Murkowski said they still had outstanding questions. Murkowski additionally expressed “strong reservations” about Means’s nomination and, as of last week, said that view had not shifted, the Post reported.
Cassidy, who chairs the Senate Health Committee and is a vocal proponent of immunization, repeatedly pressed Means on vaccine issues during the hearing. He also cast a pivotal vote to confirm Kennedy as health secretary after Kennedy vowed not to enact certain anti-vaccine policies—promises that Kennedy has largely failed to keep. While Cassidy has not revealed how he will vote on Means’s nomination, those in MAHA attribute the delay to him. When the Post inquired about the nomination’s status, Cassidy replied simply, “no change.”
