Well, our fascist Podcaster overlords have chosen another of their brethren to help destroy the United States. This time, it’s for the position of Surgeon General, which historically has been filled by a person with an impressive history of working in medicine with a focus on public health. In general, the Surgeon General’s role is to be “America’s doctor,” providing guidance and education to the general public while also advising the administration on matters of public health.
The most recent Surgeon General to be appointed was Vivek Murthy, who was first appointed by Barack Obama, then replaced by Trump, then reappointed by Biden. Murthy cofounded a nonprofit to promote HIV/AIDS education when he was still a freshman at Harvard, and before graduating he started another organization to train women as community health workers in rural India.
He then completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School before founding a THIRD public health organization, this time a nonprofit focused on improving access to affordable health care for all Americans. He also went on to found a company that streamlines and improves the process of clinical trials in order to bring new drugs to market more quickly.
So. What impressive person has Trump chosen to finally replace Murthy? Casey Means, a social media influencer with no medical license who failed to finish her surgical residency and who thinks vaccines hurt children and claims that she finally found love at 35 years of age by hiring a psychic, wishing on pennies, and talking out loud to trees. But hey, she did get a sweet two million views on the episode of Joe Rogan she did with her equally idiotic brother, and as we know by now, that’s the most important credential you can have to get anywhere in the Trump regime.
I’ll be honest, I was originally prepared to talk about this idiot last spring when Trump first said he wanted her as surgeon general. But, luckily and unluckily I guess, her confirmation was postponed because she gave birth and at that point I figured she was out. Because she wasn’t just getting criticized by those of us who understand science and critical thinking–hilariously, the biggest “Make America Healthy Again” zealots on the far right accused her of being an establishment tool who isn’t extreme enough.
Last May, David Gilbert wrote for Wired that Mike “the Health Ranger” Adams complained “She’s not a health freedom advocate. 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.”
Meanwhile, Laura Loomer opposed the nomination because she dug through Means’ old Xitter posts and discovered evidence that she may have been VACCINATED AGAINST COVID! The horror!
All of that is extremely funny, but what’s not funny is that it looks like this nomination is moving forward starting on the day this video goes live: Wednesday, February 25th, when the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions begins their questioning. That committee includes senators from across the country, so feel free to pick one and let them know what an absolute kook this lady is.
Because it’s not JUST the lack of credentials, and it’s not JUST the vaccine denialism, or the psychics or the tree conversations that bother me. In addition to all that, Casey Means is anti-birth control.
Many times over the years I have warned that the Religious Right would not stop when they killed Roe v. Wade. Once they make abortions illegal nationwide, they can and will come after birth control. Why? Simple: birth control is a safe and effective way for women to take control of their reproduction, allowing them to finish school, get a job, and make sure they are truly ready and willing to become a parent. Hormonal birth control is also medicine that can prevent debilitating pain: migraines, PCOS, and endometriosis, for example. It can even cut the risk of ovarian or endometrial cancer by up to 50% in high-risk individuals.
But women who are healthy, happy, and in control of their own bodies are not the kind of women who are easily manipulated, used, and abused, and so the Religious Right will fight to stop women from accessing birth control at any cost.
Means is part of a growing chorus of TikTok and Instagram influencers who are spreading misinformation about the hidden dangers of hormonal birth control and the related effectiveness of “natural” methods of family planning. Studies show that 74% of YouTube influencers who spoke about birth control and about half of TikTok posts on the subject encouraged people to discontinue using them.
The problem is very similar to the “freebirth” movement I talked about last year: women are ignored, mocked, or pushed into unnecessary procedures by a medical establishment that has failed to consider their unique needs for the past several centuries, and so those women turn to quack influencers in a desperate attempt to gain some kind of control. More and more women are now suspicious of hormonal birth control and see it as a dangerous product pushed on them by Big Pharma, and so people like Means steps in to tell them they’re right, as she did last year in an interview with Tucker Carlson.
Just like the freebirthers, these anti-birth control influencers have a grain of truth to build upon. As this piece from 19thNews describes, many people are never taught about the full menstrual cycle, how hormones change throughout our lives, and how tracking your cycle can help you understand and monitor your reproductive health. They point out that an organization called FACTS About Fertility seeks to close that gap by sharing science-backed research with doctors and patients, which is awesome but may be too little, too late. The misinformation artists captured social media, and from there they’ve now captured our government. An anti-birth control quack might be about to step in as “America’s doctor,” and that is extremely dangerous.
So if you have a Senator who has the chance to vet Means, please make them aware of her history. Oh, unless they’re a MAGA Republican. At that point I guess you can try telling them she isn’t a big enough quack and see how that works out.
