The hearing yesterday for the person nominated to become “America’s top doctor” reminds us of the low ebb we have reached in trust. Casey Means, this administration’s nominee for Surgeon General, tells us: “Trust yourself, not your doctor.” In fact, she wrote a whole book chapter advising this.

Will this advice resonate with Americans? We will have to see what happens when and if she receives confirmation to be our Surgeon General.

But at first glance, her words seem to be out of step with how most adults think about their own doctors. KFF polling tells us that 85% of adults trust their personal physician. That reading in 2025 is down a bit from 93% in 2023. Nonetheless, getting 85% of the population to agree on anything these days is frankly remarkable.

Keeping a Lid on Controversy

In her hearing yesterday, Means did her best to keep a lid on the controversies she has stirred. Before she was on the hotseat in the Senate, she spouted plenty of controversial words about vaccines and autism, oral contraceptives, and about her personal use of psychedelic mushrooms.

She zigged and zagged her way tough questions from both Democrats and Republicans on these and other matters. In The Atlantic, regarding her performance, Tom Bartlett observed:

“Well that didn’t sound like Casey Means. The nominee for surgeon general kept her most eccentric wellness beliefs largely in check at her confirmation hearing.”

It seems that the administration wants to keep wacky health advice of RFK Jr. and his fellow travelers from irritating voters in the runup to elections this fall. “Eat real food” and work out in your jeans seem to be safe bets for the messaging they will feed us through the coming season.

Choose to Trust

A seriously dangerous climate of cynicism is at the heart of what is coming from health agencies under this administration. We cannot function, we cannot make good health choices, without choosing to trust the health professionals who care for us. This means we have to choose the professionals we rely upon carefully. We have to participate in decisions about our health and for this, a trusting relationship is important.

So advice to distrust your doctor is lousy advice. Better advice would be to choose your doctor carefully.

Click here, here, and here for more on the hearing for Dr. Means yesterday. For more about her, click here and here. For perspective on trust and skepticism, click here.

In God We Trust, photograph by JD Hancock, licensed under CC BY 2.0