Hi everyone, It's Doctor Divya Srinivasa.
Welcome back to another episode of Inside Thoughts Out Loud,
except today's episode should be titled Outside Thoughts Out Loud
because I have been very vocal about how absurd it is that KC
Means is our nominee for Surgeon General of the United States of
America. To really understand why KC
Means shouldn't be the Surgeon General, we have to define what
the surgeon General does. The surgeon general is a
government appointed position that leads the practice of
medicine in the United States. So you should be somebody who
has practiced medicine. Casey Means doesn't practice
medicine, hasn't practiced medicine, and I'm going to get
to this. She doesn't even have a medical
license. She can't even prescribe.
And I'm going to get to this too.
She's never in her career practiced unsupervised medicine.
You have to finish residency to practice unsupervised medicine.
We're going to get there. We're going to talk about all of
this, but the person that has been nominated by RFK Junior and
Trump to be our surgeon General. Again, the person who represents
the the most, the best representation of the practice
of medicine in the United States, that represents the
healthcare of, of Americans, the person they want has never
practiced medicine. The irony there is she didn't
actually finish residency. And I have to talk about this.
I actually put this on threads and I'm going to read you guys
some of the responses I got because here's the thing.
I also did a five year surgical program.
On top of that. I did four more years of
training. But it's not about my training.
It's about her lack of training. And as someone who did five
years, because general surgery is generally 5 years long, ENT
surgery five years long, she was in a surgical training program
program and she made it over 4 years through and then quit.
And I just want the general public to know nobody does that.
It's like quitting a marathon in your last quarter mile.
Nobody does that. You're too far through.
Look, does surgical training suck?
Yeah, it's hard. You are working inhumane hours.
And when you do the math, you're getting paid less than minimum
wage. It's many places have a toxic
work culture. It's not easy, all of us can
tell you that, but when you've gotten that far, nobody quits.
Like it's just not a thing that happens.
So I really want to know, and this is what I posted on
threads, what's the T like, what happened?
Did she get kicked out? Did something happen?
Nobody quits surgical residency. You're just too far along.
You're this close to being done with the training program.
And it's important because that's the check mark that's
going to get you board certification.
And if you don't have board certification, most hospitals
are not going to give you privileges.
So you got to finish something. Now, is it common for people to
drop out part way through? Maybe not common, but it's not
unheard of. There are people that will say,
I thought I wanted to be a surgeon, Surgery is not it for
me. And they'll do something else.
But doesn't this all sound familiar?
Stanford Medical School graduate and then dropped out of surgical
training. Peter Atia, I don't know what
this like pipeline to being a grifter, terrible person is, but
both Casey and Peter have a lot in common.
I want to bring up the threads because I did not expect this to
do as well as it did, and I think it's because a lot of
people picked up on just how unusual it is.
So I said Casey means quit ENT residency when she was within a
year of completion. As someone who also did a five
year surgical training program, I can tell you that nobody does
that. If you're going to quit, you
quit earlier. When you're that far along, you
just finish and then you do what you want.
I know people who got through surgical training programs and
they they're not surgeons. They don't practice surgery.
That's OK, I've seen that happen.
But you don't quit that far down.
This tells me that there's more of the story and I have enough
friends here in medicine. Somebody spilled the tea.
OK, so 12,000 likes hundreds of comments.
So here's one comment. One comment was the rumor is
that she was fired for poor surgical skills and crippling
anxiety. I've heard that some surgical
programs will kick people out late in the game because that's
when they really start letting residents loose in the OR by
themselves, and inevitably they find out that some of them can't
function. A good program should identify
those issues much earlier or strongly encourage people to do
fellowship or research. But apparently OHSOHSU is toxic.
So this all tracks. I think that's a really
interesting comment. Look, I did surgical training
programs. I was not at OHSU, but I think
toxic is a word that's used to describe a lot of training
programs, especially in surgery. So that aside, again, no matter
how toxic it may or may not have been, she got most of the way
through right. I got to say my personal
experience has been it's residency's.
They don't really kick people out.
Now I've heard of people being required to do an extra year or
do something extra to bolster their skill set or help them get
to a point where they are where they need to be to graduate.
But usually you only get kicked out of programs for things like
drug abuse or like like severe infractions.
We're talking severe infractions that would require a program to
literally kick somebody out. And again, I don't know her
history. I don't know anyone.
I don't have any secret until I, I am not Candace Owens.
But I have to tell you, as someone who's been through the
training, nobody just drops out like that.
There's more of the story another user commented.
I have personal experience with this.
My daughter is a resident and she hates it.
I hated it too, but she doesn't want to quit.
I didn't want to quit either. She's worked so hard to get into
medical school and then worked extremely hard to get through
medical school. It makes no sense to quit when
you're so close. If Casey Means didn't care
enough to finish, why would she even want the job as surgeon
general? Compare her resume to someone
like Doctor Vivek Murthy. I mean, yeah, right.
Like sensible people. We all have the same question.
Girl, you couldn't even get through a residency.
You want to be the Surgeon General?
How does that make any sense whatsoever?
OK, so this is really interesting. 1 user shared a
message from her division chair. So that's the Doctor Who's in
charge of the division of ENT. Doctor Paul Flint, who is
chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology at OHSU at the
time, tells Vanity Fair that when Means left the program, it
was because she found the surgical work too stressful and
was not able to continue in the residency.
At least she had the strength to recognize that in her fourth
year. It took lots of guts.
I didn't push her out the door. He adds, however, that you lose
some credibility when you just drop out.
He says he believes that since then, she has mischaracterized
US medicine as a conspiracy to keep people sick.
She's wrong, he said, adding it's a certain attitude that
denies all the successes that occur in medicine.
OK, so that's, that's a really interesting take because he's
acknowledging that the reason she left was because of her own
insufficiencies as a surgeon. But again, it's super unusual.
People don't usually make it till their fourth year.
All of residency is really stressful and hard.
And although the nature of the stress changes because you get
more responsibility as you move through the program, many would
argue that the beginning years are actually the hardest, right?
So she made it through all of that.
And if you want to be a doctor, there are other residency
programs, right? So if you quit surgery, it's
common to then go into anesthesia or pick another
specialty and do that residency program.
She didn't, she chose chose not to.
She chose actually to not finish any training program.
And I want to take a minute and educate everybody on what is
residency like? How does this whole thing work?
People think you go to medical school, you graduate, you become
a doctor. OK, great.
You're a doctor now. Yeah, sort of.
You graduate medical school and you get your MD degree, OK, Or
DO degree and you then have to complete a residency.
You have never practiced unsupervised medicine when you
were in medical school. So when you graduate and you get
that doctor degree, you've never practiced medicine in an
unsupervised fashion. When you are a resident, you do
not practice medicine in an unsupervised fashion.
The only time that any practicing physician in the
United States gets to practice medicine in an unsupervised
fashion is when you are done with the residency training
program. Even the last day of residency,
you are supervised. Your work is spoken for by an
attending, an attending doctor, an attending surgeon.
KC Means has never practiced unsupervised medicine.
And this woman wants to be the surgeon general of the United
States. I mean, it's madness.
It is absolute madness. And the fact that people are so
quick to overlook it, I think partially maybe because they
don't get how this whole thing works.
You can drop out of a residency. I have many friends who have
changed their specialties, chosen to do something else.
Maybe some even spent extra years trying to get the get the
specialty that they want. Choosing the right specialty is
really important. But if you're a Peter Atia, if
you're AKC means and you just don't finish and you don't do
anything else, you've never practiced medicine in an
unsupervised fashion. And that's wild to me.
OK, so she didn't finish residency.
What else about KC means? Well, there's a lot to say.
The woman doesn't have a medical license.
So I watched this clip where she's getting interrogated about
her lack of a medical license, which in 2026 we are asking our
nominee for the surgeon general why she doesn't have a license
to practice medicine in the United States.
Wild. OK, so while they're asking her
this, they're saying do do you intend on getting a medical
license? I mean, you don't have one.
And she says, no, not only do I not have a medical license, I
don't plan on getting a medical license.
OK, please tell us. KC means why you don't need a
medical license, but you want to be the surgeon general.
And she says, well, I never I don't see patients.
Why do I need a medical license if I don't see patients?
That should tell you everything you need to know about how
unqualified this woman is. A medical license, Sure.
One reason you'd get 1 is so that you can legally practice
medicine and see patients, but there's so much more to it than
that. When you apply for a medical
license, they are pulling. Have you been sued?
Have you won? Have you lost?
Have you had drug problems? Have you been arrested?
What is your history? Do you qualify to be a
physician? No one ever has gone through
that to decide whether KC means even qualifies to have a medical
license, let alone be the Surgeon General of the United
States. She doesn't have a medical
license and when she's asked, well, do you want to get one
now? She still says no.
And her reasoning being I don't take care of patients.
This woman doesn't even understand why medical licensure
exists for all careers, for all professions, right?
Whether there's the bar, if you're going to be a lawyer,
there's medical licensure and board certification if you want
to be a doctor. These entities, they hold us
responsible and accountable. If you think about all of those
like crazy stories you hear, I think there was that
neurosurgeon, I believe he was in Texas and he was
intentionally killing people. People reported him to the
medical board. They reported him to to the
entity that manages medical licensure.
They hold us accountable. This woman has never been held
accountable, nor does she hold a medical license.
And she thinks this joke of a human thinks it's irrelevant
because she's not practicing medicine by seeing patients.
Are we for real with us? If I haven't convinced you
enough why this woman should be nowhere near the position of the
surgeon general. Just think about what she says.
Think about the things she's gone on record as saying.
First of all, when she speaks, there is a clear lack of
intelligence or insight. She will say the word sickness
and disease at nauseam, but she won't name the disease.
She'll just say, oh, America is sick.
Oh, there are so many diseases. What diseases, Casey?
Have you ever treated a disease, Casey Unsupervised?
Do you know, can you prescribe for any diseases, Casey?
You can't because you don't have a medical license.
She'll just use these vague terms, which is very Maha coded,
right? Vague terms that people go, oh,
disease, sickness. Those are bad words, yes.
What is she saying about sickness and disease?
Yet there's no specificity to anything that she says because
she's not educated in those topics.
Sure, we can talk about root cause analysis all day long.
Yes, inflammation is bad. We can all agree on that, But at
the end of the day, if you don't have a 360 degree understanding
of medicine and the human body through the practice of
medicine, you shouldn't be the surgeon general.
And this is a problem that we see with so many Wellness
scripters, right? They use these buzzwords that
get people hooked and they're able to spread misinformation so
readily. I mean, Casey was also grilled
on her stance on vaccines. This woman cannot commit to a
singular sentence. She, I mean, the verbal
gymnastics is just so frustrating.
She doesn't want to admit that she's gone on record for being
anti vaccine despite the overwhelming amount of data.
Someone who's educated in the topic and I have friends who are
educated in the topic and we may disagree on vaccines, but we can
have a conversation. We can say, well this study was
this, but it was underpowered and they know what that term
means or they didn't control for enough variables.
These are terms that we can discuss.
There wasn't long enough follow up.
It was retrospective, not prospective.
It wasn't randomized. These are terms that educated
people in medicine use when discussing data and published
peer reviewed literature. If you can't use those words and
you don't know what they mean, you need to sit all the way
down. KC means you need to sit all the
way down, like far away from the public.
And it's for me, this whole charade of KC means it just begs
the question, why does the Trump administration insist on hiring
under qualified people? I mean, look at Pete Hegseth,
look at Pam Bondi, look at Kash Patel.
Now look at KC means my husband's here right now and
he's mad because when I listed the people like the when I went
through the list of people who are not qualified for their
positions, I didn't specifically mention RFK Junior.
Thank you Ravi for reminding us another person who is grossly
under qualified would be RFK Junior.
He's just said so many lies that we have plentiful data to show
us that he's wrong. And people still stand by him
and believe him. And now I can't sway the entire
opinion of the public, you know, with a podcast episode.
And I realize that I can't and I don't want to talk about him
because it requires so much more of a nuanced conversation,
requires time. And a part of me feels like, you
know what, that ship has sailed. It was also a terrible decision.
But right now we need to focus on what's important and what we
can possibly affect in the immediate setting.
And that is the appointment of see means as the surgeon
general. I just I can't even like mention
his name because then I think of that image of him and Kid Rock
doing a workout in the sauna. And it just like this is what
the government has devolved into.
This is we are a laughing stock. Could you imagine being a world
leader or, you know, in charge of, of the health and well-being
of another country and seeing what the mockery that RFK Junior
has made of our, of our health, of American health.
I mean, it is literally embarrassing and it makes my
stomach turn. So that will be the last that I
say his name on this episode. This administration chronically
encourages and hires people into positions that they are under
qualified for. They don't have the education,
they don't have the training, they don't have the credentials.
And to me that's a very calculated effort because truly
I can give you the names of a couple of super MAGA trumpy
doctors who I may disagree with them wholeheartedly, but they
got through residency. They are board certified, they
have a medical license. They have practiced medicine.
He didn't choose somebody like that, right?
He purposefully chose somebody that doesn't meet any sort of
educational or licensure criteria to be a practicing
physician. And to me, it's just this
continued attack on educated people.
I mean, to me, it all falls in the same basket, The motivation
for why would you say that nurses aren't professionals?
I mean, it's astounding to me. Why would you say that?
And it's because he continues to attack data and science and
anybody who uses data and science to be who they are
professionally, he undermines them by saying you don't even
need data and science or licensure or board
certification. You don't even need to be
actually a practicing Dr. to be the surgeon general.
That's the that's like using a megaphone to send the message
that education is unimportant. That message will land with a
very specific group of individuals that he preys on
that are vulnerable to the misinformation that are easily
manipulated, that he can then pull in by lying to them into
his support system. And that to me is why he does
what he does. He intentionally chooses under
qualified people to draw in support from the least educated
people. And I'm just stating facts here.
If you look at where the demographics fall on who votes
blue and who votes red, especially in recent elections,
it is very much tied to college education, right?
Well, if you further vilify people who have their education,
who have done the training, who have gotten the degrees, if you
make them the villain, it's easy then to draw in your voter
crowd. That doesn't fit the blue
demographic. So Casey Means is another pawn
in the game, right? What does he do?
He hires a lot of women who are under qualified and he's the
puppeteer. They owe their job and their
position to him because they would have never otherwise
gotten it. They don't qualify.
They don't have what it takes obviously, but he gave them the
job so they're loyal to him and they will do as he says and he
gets to be the puppeteer because he gave them their job that they
didn't deserve. So it's it all goes back to
suiting his position of power. It got a lot of messages from
you guys, a lot of forwarded videos and commentary on when
are you going to talk about KC means?
When are you going to talk about KC means and I didn't post about
it on Instagram because I think it deserved a full on
conversation. So I was saving it for a podcast
episode because there are so many reasons why this woman
should not be our surgeon general.
And unfortunately, she's likely to find the support because she,
like everybody else who's in the majority that's going to affirm
her, they're all pawns in the game.
So what can we do about it, right?
What can we do to make sure that this woman does not become the
surgeon general? You need to contact your
senator, especially if they serve in the health committee.
I'm going to read this off my phone because I want to make
sure I get it right. You want to call the US Capitol
Switchboard at 202-224-3121. You want to ask to be connected
to your senator. You can also e-mail your
senator. You just have to go to their
website and they'll have an e-mail and you're going to say
I'm a constituent and I'm asking Senator so and so to oppose
confirming a Wellness entrepreneur who did not
complete any residency training as the next US surgeon general.
This role requires medical credibility, scientific
grounding and real public health leadership, none of which this
woman has if you live in Louisiana.
Senator Bill Cassidy, a medical doctor, chairs the health
committee and has significant influence over what happens
next. Call his office and make your
voice heard. Look guys, we're seeing changes.
We're seeing red districts flip to blue.
We are seeing people slowly wake up to the fact that they have
been lied to by this administration.
They have been manipulated and lied to.
So it's OK. It doesn't matter where on the
spectrum you fall, red to blue, purple, whatever green.
These positions have to be held by respectable individuals who
have earned their seat, who have earned the right to be there.
KC means in no capacity should be our Surgeon General.
She has 0 redeeming qualities. She has 0 qualifications
required. And she is, she's frankly A
shameful nominee. So let's all stand up
collectively agree that we should not support her as the
nominee for surgeon general. I can't wait to hear what you
guys think about this. There's anything more you guys
want to know about whether it comes to surgical training or
how one actually becomes a practicing physician?
Let me know in the comments. I will get back to as many of
you as possible, but that's what I got for this episode of Inside
Thoughts Out Loud.