Wellness Unmasked Weekly Rundown: Dr. Casey Means Hearing Breakdown: Can She Be America’s Doctor?

In this episode of Wellness Unmasked, Dr. Nicole Saphier delivers your weekly health and policy rundown—starting with a deeply personal reflection on family, resilience, and finding joy during the Northeast blizzard.

Then, she dives into one of the most closely watched health policy stories in Washington: the Senate confirmation hearing of Dr. Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for Surgeon General.

Dr. Saphier breaks down:

• The controversy over Dr. Means’ medical credentials, including not completing residency and lacking an active medical license

• Why medical professionals are divided—and what it means for trust in public health leadership

• The critical role of the Surgeon General as America’s top health communicator

• Why public trust, credibility, and messaging may matter more than ever in a post-COVID landscape

• The political dynamics behind the confirmation—and why she’s still likely to be approved

Plus, Dr. Saphier shares her candid perspective as a practicing physician on whether credentials should outweigh communication skills—and what the future of public health leadership should look like.

🔜 Coming next week: A deep dive into the State of the Union’s healthcare agenda, the future of the Affordable Care Act, rising premiums, and the growing influence of the MAHA movement.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Wellness on Mass I'm doctor Nicole Saffire and
this is your weekly rundown. Well for all of you
in the Northeast who had a blizzard earlier this week.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Hope everyone made.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
It unscathed, didn't have any pipes bursting or any of
those consequences that can happen with the freezing temperatures. I
personally had a wonderful time because I had all of
my family home. My husband was even home, he didn't
have to go in for an emergency surgery.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
My oldest son came over.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
And we just had a family snow day and it
was a lot of cooking, it was a lot of
board games, and then we went out and played in
the snow. I was happy as can be because my
happy place is being home surrounded by my family, and
I certainly got that. I hope you were able to
get some quality time with your family too, with the
snow or wherever you are.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
So what's been going on this week?

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Well, I can tell you one thing that I was
keeping my eye on is the Senate confirmation hearing for
doctor Casey Means for the role of Surgeon General. She
is the current President Trump nominee for Surgeon General. Quick
recap for those not up to date. She is the
second nomination. The first nomination for surgeon general last year,

(01:14):
President Trump withdrew the nomination that was doctor Jeanette Nshwat,
who I knew was a friend and colleague from Fox News.
She's a lovely person inside and out. She does a
lot of volunteer work. But her nomination was withdrawn and
in her place was put doctor Casey Means, who is
the sister of Callie Means, who is a White House advisor.

(01:39):
So I did watch the Senate confirmation hearing. Leading up
to the confirmation hearing, there was some buzz, you know,
the usual buzz whenever there's a nominee. You know, obviously
there's a huge amount of people for her, specifically the
Maha crowd, and then of course you always expect there
to be the other side giving the counterpoint as well.
So what I have seen and you know, the true

(02:01):
MAGA crowd very upset that, you know, she didn't actually
practice medicine during COVID and she hasn't spoken out against
the COVID vaccines, so they aren't her biggest fans, and
they're also the medical professionals and obviously as a physician,
I can speak to this opinion. Doctor Casey means extremely

(02:22):
intelligent individual. She I don't have her CV in front
of me, but I think she went to Stanford undergrad
or maybe Stanford Medical School.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
She did well there.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
She got a head and neck residency I think somewhere
in the Northwest, maybe Oregon. The big criticism though, is
she never completed her residency, and she said it was
because she didn't want to be a part of traditional
medicine and she wanted to go off and I guess
focus on metabolic health or I don't even know what
her reasons is to be yes, I haven't followed it

(02:53):
that closely. But the problem that medical professionals have is
she didn't complete her residency. She doesn't have an active
medical license, and so she's never actually really treated patients
in her specialty unsupervised. And so that's the biggest criticism.
And while people are like, well, what does that matter?

(03:15):
I guess it's kind of like if you think about it,
having an attorney general who never passed the bar exam,
it doesn't mean that they're not a brilliant attorney. They
can't go and start some billion dollar company or be
an entrepreneur or whatever.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
But to be the nation's lawyer, probably should.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
You know, have the bar exam, an active legal license
or something. And so that's what they're saying about her
insurgent general. She doesn't even have an active medical license
to practice medicine, didn't complete her training. How can she
be the quote unquote nation's doctor. What's my personal opinion?
I said, I understand, I kind of feel the same
way about not completing residency. Maybe that age is mean,

(03:56):
Maybe that makes me sound like a curmudgeon, like, well,
why couldn't she finish residency?

Speaker 2 (04:01):
I had to finish residency.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
So I kind of you know, I kind of feel
that way too. But is it that huge of a deal.
I don't really know. If you think about this surgeon
general role, it's a very important role because it is
the nation's doctor.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
The biggest skill that this person.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Needs is they need to be able to effectively communicate
with the public public health messaging. But even more important
than that, they need the respect of not only the people,
the American people that they are communicating too, but they
also need the respect of the administration for which they
are working together with.

Speaker 2 (04:35):
To get that research and put out.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
The messaging, and also the medical professionals, the medical organizations.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
They need to make sure that she is a trusted messenger.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
So I think one of the biggest complaints is again
medical professionals saying we don't really trust her. Watching hearing today,
there were no major moments. There were a few little
bickering back and forth. There there were any got you moments.
In my opinion, I've seen a lot of these Senate hearings,
and trust me, they can get pretty heated. This was

(05:06):
not really one of them. You know, there were some
back and forth when it came to birth control vaccines. Surprisingly,
the COVID vaccine never came up once. I was kind
of surprised in that I thought they were going to
try and ask her opinion on it.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
They did not.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
And I think she gave some great answers to some questions,
some not so great answers on other questions. Ultimately, I
think she's going to get through just fine. I can't
really imagine them not voting her in, you know.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
The Republicans.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
As long as the Republicans don't deviate, she's going to
get in. I think it'll be an uphill battle for
the administration if she is in that role, because right
now they still have a messaging problem and we're trying
to bridge that gap of public health trust, and I'm
not sure if she's the person to bridge that gap again,
not because you know, she's a very intelligent person, it's

(05:55):
just that she's very much aligned with the Maha movement
and I'd really like to see a little bit more
reaching across the aisle when it comes to public health.
That doesn't mean it has to be some Democratic nominee
for surgeon General. Maybe just someone a little less aligned
with the Maha movement who I don't know, finish their
residency and has an active medical license.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
I mean, maybe if you just check.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Those boxes, you'll get the support from some of the
critics that we're seeing online. I don't really know. I
think she's going to get confirmed. I think she's going
to do a good job. She's a new mom. They
had to do a little breastfeeding break today and I
kind of love seeing that because you know me, I
always promote breastfeeding.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
So bottom line, I anticipate they are going to vote
her in.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
She will be our new surgeon General, and I'll let
you know next week. If you follow me on social media,
you'll see it before then. But I hope everyone's having
a great week, and I have an excellent guess for
next week's podcast.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
I can't wait for you to hear it.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
We're going to break down the state of the Union,
addressed what they were talking about when it came to
the healthcare stuff. What's the future of the Four Care Acts?
Are these premiums going to go up? Everyone was saying
they're going to Are they going.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
To actually go up?

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Talk about the Maha movement, and we're going to talk
about potentially the new Surgeon General. So tune in next week.
I'm doctor Nicole Staffire. This has been Well in the
Sun Mass, your weekly rundown. Be sure to listen to
Wellness Sun Mass on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
get your podcasts.