In a statement Thursday, government watchdog Public Citizen welcomed the news of his departure.
“The Trump administration has widely abused the Special Government Employee designation to push powerful people into official jobs in ways that allowed them to circumvent financial transparency and anti-corruption restrictions,” said public citizen democracy advocate Jon Golinger. “The clock was running out for Mr. Means, and we are pleased that he has finally resigned.”
“Charlatan”
Casey has a background in actual medicine, with a degree from Stanford Medical School, but she has dropped out of residency, has no active medical license or board certification, and has become fully immersed in “functional” medicine, an ill-defined form of alternative medicine. She co-founded a company called Levels, which promotes intensive health monitoring, including continuous blood glucose monitoring for people who do not have prediabetes or diabetes. (Another Levels co-founder is Sam Corcos, now the Treasury Department's chief information officer, who, as The New Yorker reported, led the effort to dismantle the Internal Revenue Service on behalf of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.)
Casey and Calley Means made a name for themselves among the MAHA crowd with their 2024 book Good energy: the surprising link between metabolism and limitless health. The book encourages health-conscious readers to avoid processed foods, seed oils, fragrances, a variety of home care products, fluoride, unfiltered water, bananas (if eaten alone), receipt paper, and birth control pills. It includes a chapter titled “Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.”
Health experts have sharply criticized her appointment as surgeon general. The health network Defend Public Health released a statement Thursday urging lawmakers to reject its “quackery.”
“The U.S. Surgeon General is the U.S. government's leading voice on public health issues,” said DPH member and physician Oni Blackstock, an HIV expert and former assistant commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “That person should be someone Americans can trust to provide credible advice based on solid science and real data, not a charlatan who specializes in selling expensive, unproven tests and treatments.”
