Trump has selected Dr. Janette Nesheiwat for Surgeon General, Dr. Marty Makary to lead the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and doctor and former television personality Mehmet Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Nesheiwat’s decisions during the pandemic ring alarm bells for Twila Brase, president and co-founder of the Citizens' Council for Health Freedom.
"I'm very concerned that Dr. Janette Nesheiwat was perfectly fine with censoring anybody who disagreed with the narrative during COVID," says Brase. "I have no idea why President Trump would choose her or who in his group of people making selections would choose her."
In a statement, Trump called Nesheiwat "a fierce advocate and strong communicator" for preventive medicine and public health.
"She is committed to ensuring that Americans have access to affordable, quality healthcare, and believes in empowering individuals to take charge of their health to live longer, healthier lives."
Still, Brase thinks the Trump team should have looked at what Nesheiwat
was doing during COVID and opted for a different pick.
"For instance, President Trump could have chosen Dr. Scott Atlas. It seems to me that that would be a much better decision for that position.”
A Fox News contributor prior to her being nominated, Nesheiwat is a graduate of the University of South Florida. Nesheiwat completed her medical residency at the University of Arkansas Medical Center in Fayetteville and her ER rotations with Johns Hopkins University.
Brase is more pleased with the selection of Makary but not by much.
In Makary, Trump selected a surgeon and author who gained national attention for opposing vaccine
mandates and some other public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think he's probably better than some choices but why could we not have had for instance Dr. (Joseph) Ladapo in Florida, who is the surgeon general there," she said. "He was making such wonderful decisions and putting out such wonderful research against the FDA during COVID, and he seems like a much more logical selection than Dr. Marty Makary."
Brase says Makary "has probably learned along the way."
"And I don't think he ever was okay with censoring unless I missed something," says Brase. "It's just like there are some other, stronger candidates that are not being chosen that I wish President Trump would choose."
Trump: Makary will rebuild trust in FDA
In a statement, Trump said the FDA has not only "lost the trust of Americans," but the FDA has "lost sight of its primary goal as a regulator" of foods and drugs.
"The agency needs Dr. Marty Makary, a highly respected Johns Hopkins surgical oncologist and health policy expert to course-correct and refocus the agency," said Trump.
Oz is also a former U.S. Senate candidate in Pennsylvania.
"Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake," Trump said in a statement about the Oz nomination.
Trump tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to be Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).
"I think Dr. Oz (shown at left) is a terrible choice for CMS," says Brase. "He (Oz) has been a proponent of Medicare Advantage for All in the United States, as in a government program for all members of the United States, who are not in Medicaid and that would be all the rest of us."
Brase calls that a big government program and a terrible idea.
"In addition to that, he suggested in this article in Forbes magazine that there should be a 20% payroll tax to pay for creating this program and putting all of us into it," says Brase. "So, I do not know who suggested Dr. Oz for this position, but Dr. Oz should not be in this kind of position of power."
At the end of the day, it's Trump
Trump has the final say, Trump being the president and all. However, Brase would prefer having someone that is "really a believer in the free market and an opponent of socialized medicine in that position" at CMS.
"That person in that position is going to control Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, and you know basically 50% of healthcare in this country," says Brase. "He or she should be a proponent of free market medicine, free market healthcare and not more programs that would put the government in charge of the doctors and doctors' treatment decisions."
