By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
From left: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Mehmet Oz, and Casey Means
Opinion: These three aren’t a joke. They’re a warning, and if they exert their power, the consequences of their actions could be fatal, writes John Casey.
When you look at the health care team assembled under the Biden administration, it’s a veritable dream team for public health. The lineup was serious, with experience in handling a pandemic recovery, rebuilding trust in science, and expanding care to vulnerable populations.
Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.
At the helm stood Xavier Becerra, the secretary of Health and Human Services, a former attorney general of California with a long record of defending the Affordable Care Act. By his side: Dr. Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health, a historic and deeply qualified choice for the first out transgender federal official confirmed by the Senate. With experience in pediatrics and public health leadership as secretary of health for Pennsylvania, Levine brought expertise and visibility to issues too long ignored.
The Biden team also included Daniel Tsai, tapped to lead Medicaid, an often-overlooked lifeline for low-income Americans. Tsai’s work modernizing the Medicaid system in Massachusetts made him an ideal steward for the national program.
And let’s not forget Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who brought compassion and medical insight to the forefront, speaking not just about COVID-19 but the pandemic's effects on mental health and social connection. Collectively, they steered American health policy with integrity, empathy, and real credentials.
Now, under Donald Trump, it’s not a veritable dream team but a comedy team, or worse, a nightmare, depending on your perspective. We are watching a demolition of U.S. health in slow motion. Trump’s health care picks could well be billed as a reboot of the Three Stooges, only without the slapstick or charm. They include a skeptic, a quack, and a talking head.
Let’s begin with the most obvious stooge, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, or Secretary Skeptic. I think we all know by now how warped his is by his wild beliefs. For starters, likened vaccine mandates to the Holocaust, claimed that Wi-Fi causes cancer and “leaky brains,” and pushed the thoroughly debunked myth that vaccines cause autism — and on this, he is dug in, and that’s extremely dangerous for kids, make no mistake.
He has spent years peddling dangerous medical misinformation, often amplified through shadowy platforms and conspiracy networks, all while he hides behind the Kennedy name. And speaking as someone who reveres the Kennedys, I find it offensive how he throws around his illustrious name. His father and uncles are turning in their graves.
Giving RFK Jr. the reins of HHS is like hiring a flat-earther to run the Department of the Interior, except with graver consequences. Kennedy undermines decades of public health progress, particularly with vaccines that do save lives, and has been sending a chilling message to doctors, researchers, and parents alike: Science is optional.
He is the antithesis of what HHS stands for. He does a fatal disservice to health and human services. So calling him a skeptic is actually much too kind.
Then there’s the quack (I actually wrote about his quackery previously), Dr. Mehmet Oz, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is part of HHS. Kennedy and Oz, two putrid peas in a pod of puffery.
Dr. Oz, of course, rose to fame on Oprah’s couch, pitching everything from raspberry ketones as miracle fat burners to “energy medicine” and homeopathic nonsense. In 2014, a Senate panel grilled him for promoting products that had no scientific backing. One study found that over half of the health claims on his show were either disproven or lacked any supporting evidence.
Let that sink in for a minute. In a battle for who is more dangerous at HHS, it’s a toss-up between Kennedy and Oz, the man the careless and thoughtless Trump picked to oversee Medicaid. It’s the nation’s largest health insurance program, serving over 80 million Americans, including children, seniors, and people with disabilities.
Oz has never run a government agency or anything close to a large business. His medical license may be real, but his credibility has long since expired. Installing him at Medicaid is a slap in the face to the people who rely on it to survive and to the public servants who’ve worked tirelessly to keep it functioning.
And Oz proved his upper-class creds, wealth, and tone-deaf attitude to all those people who rely on Medicare and Medicaid when he bragged about crudités during his unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate from Pennsylvania.
And rounding out this circus of incompetence is the huckster, Dr. Casey Means, Trump’s nominee for surgeon general. If you haven’t heard of her, you’re not alone, unless you frequent Fox News or the wellness influencer circuit. The through-line for RFK Jr., Oz, and Means is deception.
Dr. Means’s main claim to fame is pushing pseudoscientific nutrition theories and peddling “biohacking” products as part of a company she cofounded, Levels Health. She’s a tech entrepreneur with a medical degree but no relevant public health leadership experience. None. Zero. Nada.
Honestly, how much do you want to make a bet that she somehow gets to incorporate her products into urgent messages from the surgeon general, if she’s confirmed?
She is not just unqualified; her nomination is down-right insulting. Past surgeons general have served in military medical corps, led hospitals, or overseen state public health systems. Means has done … hmm, let me think about it … podcasts!
In an era when misinformation spreads faster than any virus, the surgeon general must be a trusted national voice. Instead, we’re getting a Silicon Valley influencer who speaks in catchphrases and sells metabolic snake oil.
And this one will gobsmack you: Trump claims not to know who she is! Is that good or bad? He said he listened to … wait for it … ”I listened to Bobby.” That would be RFK Jr. May God help us.
What do these three have in common? A disdain for expertise. A flair for self-promotion. A proven willingness to play fast and loose with the truth. And no managerial or government experience whatsoever.
But unlike Moe, Larry, and Curly, these Three Stooges of health care aren’t a laughing matter. Their impact wouldn’t be slapstick. It would be catastrophic.
Imagine a public health crisis under RFK Jr. Imagine a Medicaid system managed by Dr. Oz. Imagine the surgeon general’s office turned into a Fox News green room, helmed by Casey Means and her ketone counts.
The health care system in America is already complicated, fragile, and rife with inequity. What it doesn’t need is a trio of grifters and gadflies running the show. Their combined incompetence would strip science from decision-making, politicize care, promote their own “cures,” and abandon the vulnerable in favor of ideological posturing and clickbait cures.
We’ve seen what competent, qualified, compassionate leadership can achieve, even amid historic crises like the pandemic — one only needs to think of Dr. Anthony Fauci. To swap that out for conspiracy theorists, TV doctors, and influencers is not just a downgrade. It’s an attack on public health itself.
These three aren’t a joke. They’re a warning. And if they exert their power, the punch line will be paid for in lives.
Voices is dedicated to featuring a wide range of inspiring personal stories and impactful opinions from the LGBTQ+ community and its allies. Visit Advocate.com/submit to learn more about submission guidelines. Views expressed in Voices stories are those of the guest writers, columnists, and editors, and do not directly represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, equalpride.
