The US doesn’t need another quack in charge of public health policy

On Tuesday, Casey Means had a long-delayed Senate hearing on her nomination to become surgeon general.

This may be President Trump’s weirdest nomination so far — keep in mind that this is the administration that wanted to make Matt Gaetz the attorney general of the United States. 

Means, an influencer, got this nomination because her social media accounts and best-selling book helped launch the MAHA movement. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. thinks that makes her the perfect pick for surgeon general, America’s top doctor.

Except she’s not a doctor — not a practicing one, anyway. She did graduate from Stanford medical school, but she dropped out of her residency before completing it. Her license is listed as “inactive” by the state of Oregon and, by her own admission, she is not able to write prescriptions or practice medicine.

Right off the bat, this appears to disqualify her from the job. But nothing like this has ever come up before, since no president has ever considered nominating a social media influencer as surgeon general.

Part of the job description of being surgeon general is being the vice admiral of the Commission Corps, “an elite group of multidisciplinary officers working throughout the federal government whose mission is to protect, promote, and advance the health of our nation.” But there are requirements for being an officer in the Corps, and one of them is that “Each Corps officer must possess and maintain current, unrestricted licensure.”

In other words, Casey Means is legally ineligible to join the organization........

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