The Endless Search for a Surgeon General We Don’t Need
On November 24, 2024, before taking office to start his second term, then-President-elect Trump nominated Dr. Janette Neshiewat, a Fox News medical commentator, to become the next Surgeon General of the United States. Because of controversies surrounding her resumé, the White House withdrew her nomination on May 7, 2025. Shortly thereafter, President Trump nominated Dr. Casey Means for the post.
Dr. Means’ Senate confirmation hearings were delayed due to the birth of her baby, but finally began on February 25, 2026. Dr. Means’ nomination was controversial due to unorthodox positions on health and wellness, questions about her belief in vaccinations, her failure to complete a postgraduate residency program, and the inactivity of her medical license.
With her confirmation in doubt, the White House announced today that it is withdrawing Dr. Means’ nomination and returning to the Fox News bench to nominate Fox News medical commentator and radiologist at New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Nicole Saphier.
At the beginning of this month, I wrote. “America Has Gone More Than a Year Without a Surgeon General—Has Anyone Noticed?” With Dr. Saphier’s credentials requiring Senate scrutiny and confirmation, it might be two years before America finally gets to find out who will be “the nation’s doctor.” But as the 70s rock group Humble Pie famously said, we “don’t need no doctor.”
As I’ve written before, this exercise is unnecessary. My colleagues and I explained in a Cato policy analysis nearly a year ago that the Office of the Surgeon General and the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which the office oversees, are unnecessary relics. The surgeon general has drifted from an apolitical public health role into a politicized platform, weighing in on issues far beyond its proper scope—from gun control to social policy—thereby undermining trust in legitimate health functions.
Rather than wasting the Senate’s time on what could become another contentious confirmation process, Congress should end this mission creep by dissolving the Office of the Surgeon General and the Commissioned Corps and reassigning any truly necessary public health duties to existing agencies.
A year without a surgeon general hasn’t left Americans sicker—it’s just left Washington with one less bully pulpit. That’s not a problem to fix. It’s an opportunity to finally shut the office down.