President Trump recently switched his nomination for Surgeon General but his first pick, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, will continue to work at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr said during a Thursday interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that the administration will put Nesheiwat in “a very good place,” in the agency.
The White House pulled Nesheiwat’s nomination after her credentials were scrutinized last month. CBS News reported that the physician and former Fox News contributor graduated from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, not the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, as she said after her nomination was announced.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration replaced Nesheiwat with wellness influencer Dr. Casey Means.
Means has been a major influence in Kennedy’s Make American Health Again movement since last year, along with her brother Calley Means, who serves as a White House senior adviser focusing on food and MAHA health issues.
Means is a graduate of Stanford Medical School and began a residency program at the Oregon Health and Science University before eventually dropping out.
“Casey Means, we felt, was the best person to bring the vision of MAHA to the American public,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy pointed to Means’ academic record, noting that she graduated top of her medical school class, and her willingness to consider new approaches to medicine as reasons she is qualified to be Surgeon General.
“She walked away from traditional medicine because she was not curing patients. She couldn’t get anybody within her profession to look at the nutrition contributions to illness,” Kennedy added.
An HHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions from The Hill about what position Nesheiwat will hold. Dr. Nesheiwat could not be reached for comment.
