TPA Calls on Senate to Reject Casey Means for Surgeon General

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tomorrow, the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions will hold its delayed confirmation hearing for Casey Means, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. surgeon general. As a self-proclaimed “health educator,” Means has repeatedly pedaled misinformation about vaccines and called for a variety of bans and price controls on lifesaving products and increased antitrust enforcement.

David Williams, President of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, called for Senators to reject Casey Means:

“Means claims to be an ‘educator’ but has repeatedly duped her readers into believing bogus theories. She claims without evidence that, ‘There is growing evidence that the total burden of the current extreme and growing vaccine schedule is causing health declines in vulnerable children,’ conveniently ignoring that vaccines have saved millions of lives and prevented untold illness and suffering. Given current attempts to end or weaken the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and impose greater liability on producers, these claims are especially concerning. Means’ views are wrong and have no place at the surgeon general’s office.

“If confirmed, Means would push for far more government meddling in the healthcare sector and the economy on the whole. Means has called for preventing drug producers from ‘price-gouging the American people’—presumably through destructive price controls that would lead to shortages – and breaking up ‘meatpacking monopolies.’ She also bizarrely wants to add ‘nutrition and functional medicine courses’ to an already extremely long medical school curriculum, further adding to the cost of medical education at a time of record provider shortages. All these policies would make life more difficult for millions of Americans.

“Casey Means is the wrong person for the job of surgeon general. Senators should reject her for the role, and President Trump should nominate someone with a better grasp of reality and the many healthcare issues facing Americans.”

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The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis, and dissemination of information on the government’s impact on the economy.