President Trump’s pick for surgeon general, wellness influencer Casey Means, told U.S. senators Wednesday that "anti-vaccine rhetoric" was never part of her message.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, though, pointed out that Means had cast doubt on science-based vaccine schedules. She said Means should talk up the success of immunization campaigns.
“My state of Alaska has had a very long history with this, including early childhood immunization campaigns that were targeted specifically to Alaska Native communities," Murkowski said.
Means, at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, repeatedly said vaccination was a matter for patients to discuss with their doctors.
Murkowski said that was not enough, and she took issue with this statement Means made on the Tucker Carlson Show.
"The HepB vaccine is for Hepatitis B, which is a sexually transmitted disease and IV drug-user disease, of course, which babies are not going to be exposed to," Means said in 2024. "And yet, every single baby in America is getting the intervention.”
Murkowski told her that intervention has saved lives and prevented chronic disease, particularly in Western Alaska, where Hepatitis B was endemic.
We have been able to turn the corner on this," Murkowski told her. "We're no longer seeing children with liver cancer, with this liver disease, and it is because the Hepatitis B vaccine has been made available to them at birth.”
Murkowski also disputed Means' contention that that babies aren't vulnerable to Hepatitis B exposure. A state of Alaska health bulletin warns that infants can be exposed through routine household contact, cuts and bug bites.
At his confirmation hearing last year, Health Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr also assured senators he supported vaccines, as well as the childhood vaccine schedule.
But last month, his agency removed six immunizations from the universal recommendations for children, including the Hepatitis B vaccine.
No date has been set for Means’ Senate confirmation vote.
