Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R–S.D.) is under White House pressure to speed the process of confirming President Donald Trump's nominees, among them Casey Means, the pick for surgeon general. While she has the support of her alma mater, the Stanford School of Medicine, Means is controversial because she lacks an active medical license and has a nontraditional career as a wellness influencer. But before debating whether Means is a good choice for surgeon general, Congress should consider whether the U.S. really needs that often meddlesome office at all or the public health bureaucracy it leads.

The Failure of 'Public Health'

The term "public health" has come into well-deserved disrepute in recent years because of the overreach of government officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. Panic often drives people to seek salvation from officials eager to exploit opportunities to expand their power. With little scientific basis and no consideration for tradeoffs, governments imposed lockdowns and mask mandates, limited travel, intervened in economies, and otherwise limited our freedom in the name of public health. As I noted in 2021—after Professor Neil Ferguson, a prominent advisor on pandemic policy to Britain's government, opened up about the sources of his colleagues' policy ideas—"the public health professionals behind the lockdowns took their inspiration from totalitarian China."