A MAHA influencer that Donald Trump has picked to be America’s top doctor has come under fire for failing to disclose her financial relationships with various wellness companies she was promoting.
Casey Means, a Make America Healthy Again mom who dropped out of her surgical residency and holds an expired medical license, has been nominated by the president to be the nation’s next Surgeon General.
But Means, whose brother Calley is an advisor to Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, faced a Senate grilling on Wednesday over her qualifications, vaccine skepticism and conflict of interest concerns involving companies that she gets paid to promote.
In one particularly testy exchange, the 38-year-old raw milk advocate was cornered by Democrat Senator Chris Murphy about her involvement in a prenatal vitamin called WeNatal.
In a blog post from September 24, 2024, Means noted that she had “no financial relationship to the company, just a big fan.” In another blog post dated October 29, 2024, she promoted WeNatal under a header that said, “not sponsored, just love these.”
However, records show that as early as March 2024, she had been using affiliate links to WeNatal in her newsletter and posting TikTok videos tagged as paid partnerships.
“So you weren’t telling the truth when you said you were just a fan. You were actually receiving money, correct?” Murphy asked.
“If there is any post where I said I am not receiving money, I had not been receiving money at that time,” she insisted.
“But you had received partnership fees for this particular prenatal vitamin. In fact, prior to September and October, you had posted partnership links in which you get compensated based upon clickthrough—correct?” Murphy pressed her.
“I’m happy to look at whatever documentation you’re talking about, but I do not… it’s incorrect, and it’s, uh, a false representation,” she replied.
Murphy then presented other examples of failed disclosures in apparent violation of the Fair Trade Commission rules.
Among them was her own lab testing platform, Function Health, where documents suggest Means disclosed her sponsorship agreement less than a third of the times she promoted the company on her website and social media platforms.
Murphy raised similar concerns about Genova Diagnostics, a home testing company that Means promoted on her platforms nine times, but disclosed the company’s sponsorship only twice; Daily Harvest, where she disclosed sponsorship in only three of the 14 posts recommending that product; and Zen Basil Seeds, where a partnership was disclosed two out of the 13 times that Means recommended the product.
“This seems systemic. It seems that in the majority of instances in which you were as a medical professional recommending a product, you were hiding the fact that you had a financial partnership,” Murphy said.
“Our focus has to be on restoring trust in the medical profession. And yet, over and over again, you seem to be, at scale, recommending products without telling your followers.
“You have 200,000 newsletter subscribers. You have almost a million Instagram followers, and in only three out of 14 times on Daily Harvest, when you were promoting Daily Harvest, you disclose that you’re getting paid by them?”
Means, looking more rattled than she had for much of the hearing, then sought to blame Murphy’s staff for the selective use of data.
“It sounds like you have a lot to say about this issue, and I would be very interested to see how your staff looked at this data,” she said. “I have a strong feeling that the way in which they gather this data is done intentionally to create these claims that you’re making.”
Means is a controversial pick for the Surgeon General role, which is responsible for disseminating the latest public health guidance. While supporters praise her advocacy for whole foods, disease prevention research and institutional accountability, others are highly critical.
“She dropped out of her surgical residency, is not board certified in any specialty, holds an expired medical license, and has no public health background whatsoever outside of promoting scientifically unsupported disease remedies in her newsletter,” said Defend Public Health member and virologist Angela Rasmussen, Ph.D.
“Her only apparent qualification for the job of Surgeon General is her willingness to promote RFK Jr.’s disinformation and quackery.”
In 2024, she also co-authored the book Good Energy with her older brother, Calley. In it, they argue metabolic health is the key to reversing chronic illness, which critics say verges on pseudoscience.
If appointed, Means would be America’s first MAHA doctor, despite concerns about her skepticism towards vaccines.
“I believe that parents want to have a good faith conversation without shame from their doctors about vaccines, and that and that we need to move toward a medical culture where that’s possible,” she told her confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Shaughnessy Naughton, the president of health advocacy group 314 Action, urged the Senate to reject her confirmation.
“Casey Means is a medical residency drop out and a grifter—the Senate must not confirm this unqualified, unlicensed and conflicted quack to be our nation’s top doctor,” she said.
