The Don Lemon Show
LEMON DROP | Is Donald Trump's Unqualified Surgeon General Pick Anti-Vax?!
26 Feb 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the significance of Casey Means' nomination as Surgeon General?
Let's talk about the new nominee to be Surgeon General of the United States. There was a contentious confirmation hearing held on the Hill yesterday. And I wanna bring in someone to talk about it. Dr. Frieda is a triple board certified nephrologist and the medical expert in internal medicine, pediatrics and obesity medicine.
Also, she has a very popular and very informative show live stream on YouTube.
Chapter 2: What are the concerns raised about Casey Means' qualifications?
Her channel is The Dr. Frida Show every Monday at noon Eastern time. So thank you for joining us. Can we talk about Casey Means? Because Casey Means is being nominated by the Trump administration to become the Surgeon General of the United States. But she's actually not much like Robert Kennedy.
Chapter 3: How does Casey Means' rhetoric compare to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?
He didn't even go to medical school. At least she did. But she's not a licensed practicing physician.
She is not. She did not complete her residency.
Chapter 4: What controversial statements did Casey Means make on The Joe Rogan Show?
She is not currently licensed. She does not seem to have much clinical experience. She is a wellness influencer who has talked about some anti-vaccine rhetoric. She supported RFK Jr. She was sidestepping questions in that hearing.
Chapter 5: What questions were posed during the confirmation hearing regarding vaccines?
And quite frankly, she doesn't seem to be qualified by any stretch to be the U.S. Surgeon General.
I think it's important that you mention that she is a wellness influencer because that's where she has made her money, her bones. She's come to fame about that. Recently appearing on The Joe Rogan Show with some very controversial statements regarding estrogen and testosterone, et cetera.
Chapter 6: How did Casey Means respond to questions about vaccine recommendations?
I'm going to play that, and then we're going to get to the hearing. Here she is on Joe Rogan.
We've got a huge percentage of American women on birth control pills. That's, of course, hopefully post-puberty. But we're putting women on exogenous estrogens for acne, for PCOS, for menstrual regularity, sometimes, of course, for actual birth control.
Chapter 7: What implications could her nomination have on public health and vaccine trust?
But it's very ubiquitous now in the environment. And it's like, when you kind of know this stuff, you're like... how are we allowing this to happen? And then of course it's affecting boys too, right? You know, and so I kind of just think about this world we're living in where it's tons of estrogens.
Chapter 8: What are the potential dangers of misinformation in health leadership?
It's not like there's a bunch of exogenous testosterone, right?
What is she talking about?
She doesn't know, neither do I. It frustrates me so much, especially since this administration is supposed to be all about meritocracy. But when you listen to her, clearly she's not an OBGYN. She's not an endocrinologist. And what she is saying is not based on any type of evidence. We study birth control pills. We study hormone replacement therapy.
Yes, all medicines have certain benefits, certain side effects, certain risks. However, it sounds like what she's implying is that by us having all of these estrogens, we're somehow ruining the lives of women, which then would make you think, well, should people not be on birth control? Should they not be on hormone replacement therapy?
and she has no evidence see that's the key when you are a board certified physician when you have a medical license you realize you can't just go around stating opinions because that's dangerous people listen to you and then they might disregard what their actual physicians say
Well, that's a problem with Robert Kennedy and his whole thing about vaccines as well. And the question from Bill Cassidy, who asked her, who is a physician himself, he is wondering, he is concerned about vaccines, people, you know, having misinformation about it or spreading misinformation. And this is during the hearing. They had a back and forth about would she recommend vaccines?
He just flew vaccines for children. Here it is.
Question. We've had two children die from measles in West Texas. We now have an outbreak of like a thousand children almost in South Carolina area. You're a mom. We're on the verge of losing our measles elimination status. Would you encourage other mothers to have their children vaccinated against measles with the MMR vaccine?
Like you, I'm a physician. I believe vaccines save lives. I believe that vaccines are a key part of any infectious disease public health strategy. And I would work with you, the CDC, the NIH, ACIP, FDA.
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