WIRED – Casey Means isn’t currently licensed as a doctor. But that’s not why anti-vaxxers and conspiracists think she’s unsuited to be surgeon general—to them, her anti-vaccine opinions aren’t extreme enough.
There are a lot of reasons to question President Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Casey Means to be surgeon general. She is not currently licensed as a doctor, failed to finish her surgical residency, and has voiced anti-vaccine opinions and embraced unproven alternative medicine, including advocating for raw milk and talking to trees.
But her questionable credentials are not the reason why a large cohort of anti-vaxxers, extremists, and far-right figures are angry about the nomination, which Trump credits to health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
For figures like former Kennedy running mate Nicole Shanahan and renowned anti-vaccine activist Mike Adams, better known as the Health Ranger, Means is nowhere near extreme enough in her views, and is viewed as a “Manchurian asset.”
“She’s not a health freedom advocate,” Adams wrote on X. “She’s not a vaccine truther. She’ll never recommend natural cancer cures or remedies. She’s basically cosplaying as a MAHA champion. In reality, she is an establishment pick, and she’ll push the establishment narrative. 100% guaranteed. Count on it.”
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“It’s very strange,” Shanahan wrote on X. “Doesn’t make any sense. I was promised that if I supported RFK Jr. in his Senate confirmation that [Means would not] be working under HHS or in an appointment (and that people much more qualified would be). I don’t know if RFK very clearly lied to me, or what is going on. It has been clear in recent conversations that he is reporting to someone regularly who is controlling his decisions (and it isn’t President Trump)” …