Laura Loomer focuses on the choice of Trump for surgeon general while Kennedy pushes back

The selection of President Trump van Dr. Casey Means, a wellness specialist and book author trained by Stanford, because his next surgeon-general on Thursday provoked a powerful debate about whether someone who is not a practicing doctor should serve as the top doctor of the nation.

Laura Loomer, the extreme right -wing activist who has so much influence on Mr Trump that more than half a dozen national security officers were fired on her adviceappeared as a vocal critic. Nicole Shanahan, health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the choice “very strange”.

Dr. means, a narrow ally of Mr. Kennedy, trained as a surgeon in otolaryngology – ear, nose and throat medicine – but left its surgical place of residence after four years to practice ‘functional medicine’ that focuses on the root causes of diseases. She said that she was disillusioned with the medical institution and had concluded that it was failing patients.

Mrs. Loomer ridiculous Dr. Sweats On social media Thursday called her a “total crackpot” that uses “shrooms as” plant medicine “and talk to trees!” And “doesn’t even have an active medical license.” Mrs Loomer placed fragments of Dr. Means’s weekly newsletter, In which Dr. Migerts about recipes, product recommendations and other topics, including “Mindset Shifts and customs.”

Mr. Kennedy pushed back hard with a Long -term message on XMention the criticism ‘absurd’, while Mr. Trump said reporters that he was Dr. Didn’t know, but chose her because “Bobby thought she was fantastic.”

Dr. Means’s brother, Calley means, an adviser to the White House for Health problems and former lobbyist in the food industry, defended his sister in an interview.

“Casey has inspired millions of Americans and is a threat to the status quo because she has left the medical system, not despite that,” said Mr. Means.

He added that the family was shocked when she left her residence, “but she had a clear moral insight that her patients did not get better.”

According to federal law, the surgeon general supervision of the corps of American health care, the uniformed service that works on the front line of public health, is supervising.

There are just Two requirements For the job: the nominee must be a member of the corps (the president usually appoints a candidate before he or she takes the job) and must have “specialized training or important experience in public health programs”.

Dr. David A. Kessler, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration that also served as a dean of the medical schools in Yale and the University of California, San Francisco, said in an interview that although there are legitimate reasons for Dr. To criticize in the middle, having a current medical license was not among them.

The most important question, Dr. said Kessler, is whether a surgeon general is “well trained” in medicine. As Dr. Means finished for four years of residence, he said, “She is very well trained.”

Large medical groups were largely silent about the appointment. Neither the American Medical Association nor the American Public Health Association has issued statements. But Arthur L. Caplan, a prominent medical ethicist at New York University, called the appointment ‘irresponsible’.

“Naming Casey means, a non-practicing doctor who has not spent years’ health interventions, means a surgeon-general who will post a fringe practitioner of unproven functional medicine responsible for training the American people about their challenges in the field of health and diseases,” Dr. wrote Caplan in an e-mail.

Dr. Caplan noted that Mr. Kennedy called for placebo-controlled vaccines, and said that the health secretary should apply the same scientific strictness to the type of functional and alternative remedies Dr. Gunders. “Without data it seems that her Newark Airport run without a radar or radio,” he wrote.

The resources brothers and sisters are both media entrepreneurs entrepreneurs. Calley Means is the founder of Tremed, a startup that makes tax -free expenses for supplements, exercise and healthy food possible. Casey Means is the founder of levels, a company that offers subscribers portable glucose monitors to follow their health.

Her embrace of holistic therapies has pulled some eye rolls into the press. Rolling stone called her a “woo-woo wellness influencer.”

Dr. Means last year after she and her brother appeared in Tucker Carlson’s show to promote their diet and self -help book, “Good Energy”, who claims that metabolic dysfunction is at the basis of a chronic illness pidemy.

Mr. Kennedy said on X that Dr. Means the ability to inspire ‘Americans to reconsider our health care system’ ” an existential threat to the status quo interests that benefit from disease ‘. In an interview with Fox News, he said she had “gathered” his “Make America Remory Again” movement.

Just like Mr. Kennedy, Dr. Means repeatedly said that America is in the middle of a chronic disease crisis. She has pointed to rising percentages of infertility, obesity, diabetes, depression and other disorders as proof. Just like Mr. Kennedy has suggested that environmental oxins and the food system are to blame.

Mr. Trump’s Appointment of Dr. resources came as a surprise. He announced it on Wednesday after withdrawing the appointment of his previous choice, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, who would appear on Thursday before the Senate Health Committee.

Dr. Nesheiwat, a doctor of emergency care and former Fox News-commentator, is the sister-in-law of Michael Waltz, who until last week served as the national security adviser of Mr Trump. She had confronted with criticism that she was less than future about her references; Mrs. Loomer complained that Dr. Nesheiwat was not “ideologically aligned” with the president.

The surgeon general has no real authority to set up the policy; The power of the work is in the platform and in the reports of the surgeon general. The Landmark 1964 Report on tobacco led to warning labels on cigarette packages. Dr. C. Everett Koop, one of the best-known surgeon generals of the nation, used the office to argue for patients with AIDS at a time when his fellow republicans ignored the disease.

Dr. Vivek Murthy, who served as a surgeon -general in the administrations of Obama and Biden, spoke about loneliness and mental health.

Dr. David Perlmutter, an ally of Dr. Means, whose work focuses on the intersection of food and neurological disorders, said that the most important quality for every surgeon -general is the possibility to communicate science to the public.

Dr. means he said, “excels.”