Watch Live: Casey Means surgeon general Senate confirmation hearing

The committee will take a 15-minute break at 11 a.m. so Means can care for her baby boy, who was born on the day she was supposed to have her confirmation hearing in October. 

“And by the way, congratulations on your baby,” Chairman Bill Cassidy said as he opened the hearing. “It gives you a great perspective on life, and I trust all is well.”

Means is an author and has built a large following online by writing about health and wellness, often focusing on metabolic health. In her newsletter “Good Energy,” she has criticized both the food and health care industries. A wishlist for the administration she published in 2024 included praise for Kennedy and a list of priorities including the reformation of “burdensome food regulations” and an investigation of the childhood vaccine schedule.

Means and her brother also wrote the book “Good Energy,” where they said their mother had “simply been prescribed pills” after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer instead of being “set on a path of curiosity about how these conditions are connected and how the root cause can be reversed.” Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, and their mother died of the disease in 2021. Another chapter of the book is titled “Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.” 

Means is also the co-founder of Levels, a health app that can connect to glucose monitors.

 The surgeon general is considered the “Nation’s Doctor,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Their job includes giving Americans “the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury” by issuing advisories, calls to action and reports 

The surgeon general also oversees 6,000 members of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, another part of HHS. 

Once confirmed by the Senate, the surgeon general serves a four-year term of office.

Means is a medical doctor, but she does not currently have a license to treat patients. 

Means attended the Stanford School of Medicine and graduated in 2024 as a distinguished scholar, according to the university. She went on to begin a residency in head and neck surgery, but departed the program without completing it and is not a surgeon. 

Means was granted a full medical license in Oregon in 2018, according to online records, and opened a functional medicine practice called Means Health. She has also worked in biomedical research. 

Her license has been “inactive” since 2024, according to online records. On her website, Means said the status change was voluntary because she “was not actively seeing patients.”