Siblings Casey and Calley Means—wellness darlings of the Make America Healthy Again movement, despite being rife with potential conflicts of interest—are both missing from the political arena, at least for now.
Casey Means, President Trump’s nominee for surgeon general, was scheduled to appear virtually at a Senate confirmation hearing today, but the hearing was postponed indefinitely after she went into labor. The hearing, it turns out, had been scheduled two days after her due date, CNN reported this morning.
Meanwhile, The New York Times separately reported that Calley Means has departed from the White House, vacating his role as a “Special Government Employee,” which has a 130-day term limit. The Times reported that Calley left about a month ago when the term ended, though the White House never announced his departure, and he has continued to be identified as a government employee in press articles and at a conference. Calley, who has acted as an influential advisor to anti-vaccine health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told the Times that the press articles and his conference biography were inaccurate.
The absence of the Means is welcomed by critics, who point out the pair’s lack of health expertise and that their wellness companies could pose conflicts of interest to their government work.
Calley, for instance, is an entrepreneur who co-founded the wellness company Truemed, a platform that enables people to use money from HSAs and FSAs (pre-tax accounts for medical needs) to buy unproven, upscale wellness interventions, like cold plunges, red light therapy, a $10,000 personal sauna, and supplements. As the Times noted, Calley’s Truemed stands to benefit from the Trump administration’s plans to broaden eligibility for such tax-advantaged medical spending.