New surgeon general nominee cofounded ‘biowearables’ startup with DOGE operative

is a senior reporter for The Verge, covering the Trump administration, Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government, and the tech industry’s embrace of the MAGA movement. Before she was chosen as Donald Trump’s latest nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means came from the world of healthcare startups – and cofounded one with a tech entrepreneur who’s now a key DOGE operative in charge of dismantling the IRS. In 2019, Means, a holistic medicine doctor who rose to prominence in the Trump-adjacent MAHA movement, launched Levels, a biowearables and health-tracking company, with Sam Corcos, who’s now leading efforts at DOGE to construct a “mega API” that compiles American taxpayers’ data. The company, whose first product was a blood glucose tracker connected to a $400-per-month subscription app, received tens of millions of dollars funding over the past several years – notably from Andreesen-Horowitz’s venture capital arm a16z, which led its $12 million seed round and its Series A r ... Read full article.