Latest news with #Levels
ITV News
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- ITV News
Glastonbury 2025 day two: A rainy start for festival-goers on Worthy Farm
It's day two of Glastonbury Festival 2025, and a showery start for those arriving on Worthy Farm. Stages, including Levels and Glade, are opening up for their first acts this Thursday 26 June and camping spots are quickly filling up. The damp weather doesn't seem to have dampened spirits at the site - lots of smiles from those lugging their belongings from car park to camp. This year's festival will see headline performances from British rock/pop band The 1975, veteran singer Neil Young and his band the Chrome Hearts, and US pop star Olivia Rodrigo. Those settling in at the world-famous festival in Pilton, can expect a mixed bag of sunshine and rain over the coming days, forecasters have said. Ticket-holders advised to prepare for mainly warm weather, but to also bring waterproofs. Worthy Farm could see thunderstorms over the weekend. The UKHSA has also given advice on how revellers can keep themselves safe over the five days. Regulars at the festival have also been sharing their tips on how to enjoy Glastonbury without spending a fortune. Sir Rod Stewart's boombox-shaped toilet A giant boombox-shaped toilet, co-designed by Sir Rod Stewart, has been unveiled today. WaterAid's Boombox Bog houses a toilet that sits behind the tape deck. It's decorated in leopard print, a pattern often worn by Sir Rod. The veteran rockstar, 80, will perform in front of thousands of music fans on Sunday when he plays the coveted tea-time legends slot on the Pyramid Stage, which sits nearby to the toilet. The Maggie May singer said: 'I've spent my life singing to packed arenas and festival crowds, but nothing hits a high note quite like clean water and a decent loo. 'They might not be sexy, but they're life-changing.'That's why I've teamed up with WaterAid to bring our funky Boombox Bog to Glastonbury Festival and shine a light on the importance of these everyday essentials that millions still live without.'Together, we're creating change that's gonna last forever. Sir Rod's performance will come after the singer postponed a string of concerts in the US, due to take place this month, while he recovered from flu. The singer has teased he will welcome a number of guests to the stage during his set, including his former Faces band member Ronnie Wood. Last night's flash mob for Michael Eavis Festival-goers at Glastonbury celebrated its founder, Sir Michael Eavis, with facemasks and a flashmob yesterday- the festival's opening day. Fans demonstrated their backing for the legendary festival founder in the form of a "Michael-Mob." Take a look!
New York Post
7 days ago
- Health
- New York Post
RFK Jr. wants every American to use ‘wearable' health data-collecting technology
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. wants all Americans to use 'wearable' technology to track their health as part of his 'MAHA' agenda. The Kennedy-clan strongman revealed his agency's plan Tuesday for a massive push for Americans — who have an obesity rate of 40% — to use wearable data-collecting technology such as FitBits, Oura Rings, and Apple Watches, to promote healthier lifestyles. 'We're about to launch the biggest advertising campaign in HHS history to encourage Americans to use wearables,' Kennedy said in a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing on Tuesday. Advertisement 3 Robert Kennedy Jr. said he wants all Americans to use 'wearable' technology to track their health as part of his 'MAHA' agenda. X / @SecKennedy 'It's a way people can take control over their own health. They can take responsibility. They can see, as you know, what food is doing to their glucose levels, their heart rates, and a number of other metrics, as they eat it,' the secretary said in the statement, which was also posted to X. 'We think that wearables are a key to the MAHA agenda of making America healthy again and my vision is that every American is wearing a wearable in four years,' he concluded. Advertisement Kennedy expressed the belief that with accurate and timely health data, Americans will exert better judgment in their diet and will even opt for more exercise. The Trump official has previously argued during his Senate confirmation hearing that obesity in the United States poses a national security risk affecting military readiness. 3 Close up of a hand touching a smartwatch with a health app on the screen, a gadget for a fitness active lifestyle. sitthiphong – President Trump's nominee for Surgeon General, Dr. Casey Means, is also an advocate for wearable Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) products. Advertisement In a blog post for her own CGM-producing company, Levels, Means argued that the 'small plastic discs' can 'reduce global metabolic suffering' and provide much-needed help to the '93.2 percent of people' in the US suffering from metabolic issues. Means' Levels technology attaches to the users' arms and sends accurate, second-by-second metabolic data to their smartphone. 3 A diabetic woman with a glucose sensor uses a mobile phone to measure her blood sugar level. Pixel-Shot – Advertisement Kennedy revealed last week that coffee giant Starbucks will make MAHA-inspired amendments to its menu — though the company already avoids artificial flavors, dyes, high fructose corn syrup, and other unhealthy additives. RFK Jr. took his first pound of flesh off of Americans earlier this year when he outlawed the use of artificial dyes in American food products.
Metro
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
British pop star's Glastonbury gig cancelled with last minute replacement
A British pop star has pulled out of their Glastonbury set with a last minute replacement. Just For Me singer PinkPantheress, whose real name is Victoria Beverley Walker, was due to take to the Levels stage in Silver Hayes at on Thursday night for a 30 minute slot. However, the 11pm gig has now been scrapped with a couple of days to go, and festival-goers spotted the lineup change on the official festival app. Instead, Roza Terenzi will be playing from 10:30pm until midnight, sandwiched between a Confidence Man DJ set and Marie Davidson. Thankfully for PinkPantheress fans, she will still be performing as planned the Woodies Stage on Friday evening at 7:30pm. The last minute changed her sparked speculation from fans that the reshuffle was down to the 24-year-old star's popularity. 'Was going to be dangerously rammed,' a fan wrote on Reddit, while another said: 'Could have seen that coming, why even book it then.' A different fan commented: 'Probably for the best, having anything remotely popular on the stage (especially on Thursday) is always a recipe for disaster.' And someone else added: 'Yeah everyone knew it would be carnage from the moment it was announced.' However, Glastonbury has rubbished fears of 'overcrowding' and insisted PinkPantheress was not able to perform. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A spokesman told The Sun: 'This change was absolutely not as a result of overcrowding fears, the artist was simply no longer able to make this performance. But she is still playing her Woodsies set.' Already, PinkPantheress has 2.6million Instagram followers, having grown her fanbase on TikTok by sampling 90s and 00s tracks. She's already found herself in the top 10 singles and album charts in the UK, and has three Brit Award nominations to her name. Last summer, she cancelled all her remaining 2024 dates due to ill health after struggling with her 'overall well-being'. 'It is with the heaviest heart that I sadly have to announce that I will not be able to continue with the rest of my live shows this year,' the Boy's A Liar star wrote on Instagram at the time. She added: 'It appears I have reached a wall which I am struggling to penetrate through.' Organisers have slowly revealed the artists for each stage ahead of the festival — which runs from Wednesday, June 25 to Sunday, June 29 — but punters know there's always plenty hidden in the fields. Olivia Rodrigo, The 1975 and Neil Young will headline with the likes of Scissor Sisters and Busta Rhymes performing elsewhere at Worthy Farm, while fans are trying to figure out some secret performances over the weekend. More Trending This year, a lot of the attention is largely focused on the mysterious Patchwork, who are taking to the Pyramid Stage on Saturday. Emily Eavis — head organiser and daughter of Sir Michael Eavis — has teased that the secret set has been 'in the works for a while'. Metro has contacted representatives for Glastonbury and PinkPantheress for comment. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Kneecap have principles – that's why Starmer doesn't want them at Glastonbury MORE: Glastonbury 'weren't interested' in legendary band headlining for 30th anniversary MORE: Inside the £28,999 Glastonbury accommodation with pools, an onsite hairdresser, and helicopter arrivals
Atlantic
19-06-2025
- Health
- Atlantic
How the Glucose Monitor Became a MAHA Fixation
To hear some of them tell it, the companies selling continuous glucose monitors have stumbled upon a heretofore unknown quirk of human biology. Seemingly healthy people, many of these companies argue, have 'glucose imbalances' that need to be monitored and, with dietary vigilance, eradicated. Millions of people are going through life eating bananas, not knowing that their blood sugar is rising with every bite. This must be stopped. To this end, the companies market the continuous glucose monitor, or CGM, a quarter-size sensor that takes a near-constant measure of the glucose in the fluid between a person's cells. Once inserted into an arm, the sensor allows the wearer to monitor their blood-sugar levels on a phone app for $80 to $184 a month. Doing so allows you to 'see the impact of what you eat' (according to the start-up Lingo), to 'motivate behavior change and encourage healthier choices' (according to another called Levels), and to 'personalize your approach' to weight loss, because 'everyone's journey is different' (according to Nutrisense). The gadgets have been revolutionary for many people with diabetes—previously the main available device for measuring blood sugar required users to prick their fingers multiple times a day. Many insurers cover CGM prescriptions for diabetics; they can pick up the devices at the pharmacy just as they would blood-test strips. But when I asked a half dozen experts whether people who don't have diabetes should wear CGMs, I got a resounding 'Meh.' 'It's a free country. People can pay money for whatever they feel like doing,' David Nathan, a diabetes expert at Harvard, told me. 'But from a medical point of view, I am personally unconvinced that they lead to any health benefit.' Relying on a Harvard diabetes expert to give you diabetes advice, however, goes against the general ethos of the 'Make America Healthy Again' movement, many of whose members have been heavily promoting CGMs in recent months, including to people who don't have diabetes. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the secretary of Health and Human Services, talked them up in an April CBS interview as 'extraordinarily effective in helping people lose weight and avoid diabetes.' At his Senate confirmation hearing, before becoming Food and Drug Administration commissioner, Marty Makary said glucose monitors help people 'learn about what they're eating.' Casey Means, the wellness influencer whom President Donald Trump nominated for surgeon general, has said that more Americans should use CGMs too. (As it happens, she is a co-founder of Levels.) 'I believe CGM is the most powerful technology for generating the data and awareness to rectify our Bad Energy crisis in the Western world,' Means wrote in her best-selling book, Good Energy. (Bad Energy is her term for the metabolic dysfunction that she believes to be at the root of many chronic health problems.) The devices are emblematic of the self-reliance that characterizes the MAHA movement. 'The Casey Means's of the world,' Alan Levinovitz, a James Madison University religion professor who has studied alternative health, told me in an email, 'are using the rhetoric of naturalness as a way of telling people they can have complete control and expertise over their own health—which is the natural way to be healthy, rather than outsourcing that wisdom to top-down elites.' Indeed, one of the chapters of Good Energy is titled 'Trust Yourself, Not Your Doctor.' (Means did not respond to a request for comment.) CGMs appear to have trickled into MAHA world from the Joe Roganosphere, helped along by the fact that the devices, which in the past had been prescribed mainly to diabetics, were made available last year for purchase over the counter—that is, by anyone. Five years ago, Paul Saladino, a doctor who promotes an ' animal-based diet,' said on Rogan's podcast, 'This is the kind of stuff that really tells you about your metabolic health. There's no way to lie with a continuous glucose monitor.' Since then, CGMs have been endorsed on popular wellness podcasts such as Andrew Huberman's Huberman Lab and Dave Asprey's The Human Upgrade, and by pop-health doctors such as Peter Attia and Mark Hyman, the latter of whom called the CGM 'a gadget that has completely changed my life.' A wellness influencer known as the Glucose Goddess said that although they may not be for everyone, CGMs can be 'a pretty incredible tool to start to connect what you're eating with what's actually happening inside of your body,' and offers a guide to them on her website. Gwyneth Paltrow, the empress of Goop, was recently spotted wearing one. Sun Kim, a Stanford endocrinologist, told me that a few years ago, 'I was literally contacted by a start-up almost every month who wanted to incorporate a CGM' into their products. Of course, some CGM companies do specialize in people who have diabetes and need around-the-clock monitoring. But Kim and others I spoke with told me they suspect that, to boost sales, CGM manufacturers are trying to expand their potential-customer base beyond people living with diabetes to the merely sugar-curious. Jake Leach, the president of Dexcom, maker of the over-the-counter CGM Stelo, told me via email, 'Stelo was originally designed for people who have Type 2 diabetes not using insulin and those with prediabetes, however, given the broad accessibility of this device, we are encouraged to see people without diabetes interested in learning more about their glucose and metabolic health.' A spokesperson for Dexcom pointed out to me that most people with prediabetes are undiagnosed. Fred St. Goar, a cardiologist and clinical adviser for Lingo, told me in a statement that CGMs can be beneficial for nondiabetics because 'understanding your body's glucose is key to managing your metabolism, so you can live healthier and better.' Scant research exists on how many nondiabetic people are buying CGMs, but anecdotally, some providers told me that they are seeing an uptick. Nicola Guess, a University of Oxford dietician and researcher, said that '10 years ago, no, I never saw anyone without diabetes with a CGM. And now I see lots.' Mostly, she said, they're people who are already pretty healthy. In this sense, CGMs are an extension of the wearables craze: Once you have an Oura Ring and a fitness tracker, measuring your blood sugar can feel like the next logical step of the 'journey.' Should people who aren't diabetic wear one of these? Health fanatics who have $80 a month to burn and want to see how various foods affect their blood sugar are probably fine to wear a CGM, at least for a little while. Spoiler: The readout is probably just going to show that eating refined carbs—such as white bread, pasta, and sweets—at least temporarily raises blood sugar to some degree. Normal glucose patterns for nondiabetic people tend to vary quite a bit from meal to meal and day to day. Most nondiabetics' blood-sugar readings will typically fall within the 'normal' range of 70 to 140 milligrams per deciliter. But many healthy people will occasionally see spikes above 140, and scientists don't really know if that's a cause for concern. ('Great question' is a response I heard a lot when I asked.) In the studies he's worked on, Kevin D. Hall, a former National Institutes of Health nutrition scientist, has found that even in tightly controlled settings, people's blood-sugar levels respond very differently to the same meal when eaten on different occasions. Given all these natural deviations, a CGM may not be able to tell you anything especially useful about your health. And CGMs can be less accurate than other types of blood-sugar tests. In another study, Hall and his co-authors stuck two different brands of CGM on the same person, and at times, they provided two different blood-sugar readings. The conclusion, to Hall, was that more research is needed before CGMs can be recommended to nondiabetics. What's more, blood sugar depends on sleep, stress, and exercise levels, and whether any given meal includes protein or fat. If you notice a spike after eating a banana, the banana might not be the reason. It might be the four hours of sleep you got the previous night, because sleep deprivation can affect the hormones that influence blood sugar. As a result, Guess said, 'a CGM cannot tell you whether a single food is right for you'—though some CGM enthusiasts make this promise. (A CGM can help you 'learn your reaction to individual foods and meals,' Means has written.) For some people, tracking data does help nudge them toward healthier behaviors. If you get a clear readout from a CGM that your blood sugar has risen after you've eaten refined carbs, and it moves you to eat fewer refined carbs, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But researchers haven't found evidence yet that nondiabetic people eat better after wearing a CGM. And if you know how to read a CGM, you probably already know what a healthy diet looks like. You could just eat it. Anne Peters, a diabetes researcher at the University of Southern California, told me, 'You could just not wear it at all and tell yourself to eat more vegetables and a more plant-based diet and eat healthy, lean protein.' Many of the biohackers who talk up CGMs also promote a low-carb, protein-heavy diet that would include a T-bone more readily than a Triscuit. (Asprey, the man behind The Human Upgrade, recommends putting butter in coffee.) The potential downside of glucose monitoring is that people who are (perhaps needlessly) alarmed by their CGM data will swap out healthy carbs such as fruit and whole grains for foods that are less healthy—butter, for example, or bacon and red meat. Those foods don't make an impact on blood sugar, but they can affect other markers of health, such as cholesterol and body fat. Eat a stick of butter, and your CGM will probably show a flat, pleasant line. But your arteries may protest. I noticed these perverse incentives myself during my pregnancy, when I had gestational diabetes and wore a CGM to manage my blood sugar. A bowl of heart-healthy oatmeal would cause my blood-sugar reading to soar to an unacceptable 157, but a piece of cheesecake—with loads of fat balancing out the sugar—would keep it safely under my goal level of 135. At the time, I wanted to eat whatever kept my blood sugar low, for the sake of my baby. But few dieticians would advise healthy people to eat cheesecake instead of oatmeal every morning. Glucose, after all, is just a small part of the picture of human health. 'Waist circumference, blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, resting heart rate—they are much better measures of how healthy someone is than glucose,' Guess said. And watching a real-time readout of your blood glucose can become an obsession of sorts—not an entirely harmless one. 'Something being a waste of time is a net harm,' Guess told me. 'There is something unethical to me about filling people's heads with worries that never come to pass.' Many of the researchers I spoke with said that if you are concerned you might have diabetes or prediabetes, you could just get an A1c blood test at your annual physical. Like a CGM, it, too, measures blood sugar, but much more cheaply and without requiring you to wear a device all the time. And if it shows that you're at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, you could do what doctors have suggested doing for decades now: Eat a diet rich in vegetables and lean proteins, and get some exercise most days. ('Duh,' Nathan said.) One way for Kennedy and others in the Trump administration to find out if CGMs do all they say they do would be to fund studies on whether CGMs are helpful, and for whom. Quite the opposite is happening. Hall recently left Trump's NIH because he believed he was being censored when speaking about the results of studies that conflicted with Kennedy's views, and Nathan's diabetes-prevention study was recently frozen by the Trump administration. So far, the administration has ended or delayed nearly 2,500 NIH grants, including some related to researching blood glucose. If the Kennedy-led HHS department truly would like to make America healthy again, it could stop defunding the people studying Americans' health.
Boston Globe
06-06-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
How Trump's pick for surgeon general uses her big online following to make money
In her newsletter, on her social media accounts, on her website, in her book and during podcast appearances, the entrepreneur and influencer has at times failed to disclose that she could profit or benefit in other ways from sales of products she recommends. In some cases, she promoted companies in which she was an investor or adviser without consistently disclosing the connection, the AP found. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Means, 37, has said she recommends products that she has personally vetted and uses herself. She is far from the only online creator who doesn't always follow federal transparency rules that require influencers to disclose when they have a 'material connection' to a product they promote. Advertisement Still, legal and ethics experts said those business entanglements raise concerns about conflicting interests for an aspiring surgeon general, a role responsible for giving Americans the best scientific information on how to improve their health. Advertisement 'I fear that she will be cultivating her next employers and her next sponsors or business partners while in office,' said Jeff Hauser, executive director of the Revolving Door Project, a progressive ethics watchdog monitoring executive branch appointees. The nomination, which comes amid a whirlwind of Trump administration actions to dismantle the government's public integrity guardrails, also has raised questions about whether Levels, a company Means co-founded that sells subscriptions for devices that continuously monitor users' glucose levels, could benefit from this administration's health guidance and policy. Though scientists debate whether continuous glucose monitors are beneficial for people without diabetes, U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promoted their use as a precursor to making certain weight-loss drugs available to patients. The aspiring presidential appointee has built her own brand in part by criticizing doctors, scientists and government officials for being 'bought off' or 'corrupt' because of ties to industry. Means' use of affiliate marketing and other methods of making money from her recommendations for supplements, medical tests and other health and dietary products raise questions about the extent to which she is influenced by a different set of special interests: those of the wellness industry. A compelling origin story Means earned her medical degree from Stanford University, but she dropped out of her residency program in Oregon in 2018, and her license to practice is inactive. She has grown her public profile in part with a compelling origin story that seeks to explain why she left her residency and conventional medicine. 'During my training as a surgeon, I saw how broken and exploitative the healthcare system is and left to focus on how to keep people out of the operating room,' she wrote on her website. Advertisement Means turned to alternative approaches to address what she has described as widespread metabolic dysfunction driven largely by poor nutrition and an overabundance of ultra-processed foods. She co-founded Levels, a nutrition, sleep and exercise-tracking app that can also give users insights from blood tests and continuous glucose monitors. The company charges $199 per year for an app subscription and an additional $184 per month for glucose monitors. Means has argued that the medical system is incentivized not to look at the root causes of illness but instead to maintain profits by keeping patients sick and coming back for more prescription drugs and procedures. 'At the highest level of our medical institutions, there are conflicts of interest and corruption that are actually making the science that we're getting not as accurate and not as clean as we'd want it,' she said on Megyn Kelly's podcast last year. But even as Means decries the influence of money on science and medicine, she has made her own deals with business interests. During the same Megyn Kelly podcast, Means mentioned a frozen prepared food brand, Daily Harvest. She promoted that brand in a book she published last year. What she didn't mention in either instance: Means had a business relationship with Daily Harvest. Growing an audience, and selling products Influencer marketing has expanded beyond the beauty, fashion and travel sectors to 'encompass more and more of our lives,' said Emily Hund, author of 'The Influencer Industry: The Quest for Authenticity on Social Media.' With more than 825,000 followers on Instagram and a newsletter that she has said reached 200,000 subscribers, Means has a direct line into the social media feeds and inboxes of an audience interested in health, nutrition and wellness. Advertisement Affiliate marketing, brand partnerships and similar business arrangements are growing more popular as social media becomes increasingly lucrative for influencers, especially among younger generations. Companies might provide a payment, free or discounted products or other benefits to the influencer in exchange for a post or a mention. But most consumers still don't realize that a personality recommending a product might make money if people click through and buy, said University of Minnesota professor Christopher Terry. 'A lot of people watch those influencers, and they take what those influencers say as gospel,' said Terry, who teaches media advertising and internet law. Even his own students don't understand that influencers might stand to benefit from sales of the products they endorse, he added. Many companies, including Amazon, have affiliate marketing programs in which people with substantial social media followings can sign up to receive a percentage of sales or some other benefit when someone clicks through and buys a product using a special individualized link or code shared by the influencer. Means has used such links to promote various products sold on Amazon. Among them are books, including the one she co-wrote, 'Good Energy'; a walking pad; soap; body oil; hair products; cardamom-flavored dental floss; organic jojoba oil; a razor set; reusable kitchen products; sunglasses; a sleep mask; a silk pillowcase; fitness and sleep trackers; protein powder and supplements. She also has shared links to products sold by other companies that included 'affiliate' or 'partner' coding, indicating she has a business relationship with the companies. The products include an AI-powered sleep system and Daily Harvest, for which she curated a 'metabolic health collection.' Advertisement On a 'My Faves' page that was taken down from her website shortly after Trump picked her, Means wrote that some links 'are affiliate links and I make a small percentage if you buy something after clicking them.' It's not clear how much money Means has earned from her affiliate marketing, partnerships and other agreements. Daily Harvest did not return messages seeking comment, and Means said she could not comment on the record during the confirmation process. Disclosing conflicts Means has raised concerns that scientists, regulators and doctors are swayed by the influence of industry, oftentimes pointing to public disclosures of their connections. In January, she told the Kristin Cavallari podcast 'Let's Be Honest' that 'relationships are influential.' 'There's huge money, huge money going to fund scientists from industry,' Means said. 'We know that when industry funds papers, it does skew outcomes.' In November, on a podcast run by a beauty products brand, Primally Pure, she said it was 'insanity' to have people connected to the processed food industry involved in writing food guidelines, adding, 'We need unbiased people writing our guidelines that aren't getting their mortgage paid by a food company.' On the same podcast, she acknowledged supplement companies sponsor her newsletter, adding, 'I do understand how it's messy.' Influencers who endorse or promote products in exchange for payment or something else of value are required by the Federal Trade Commission to make a clear and conspicuous disclosure of any business, family or personal relationship. While Means did provide disclosures about newsletter sponsors, the AP found in other cases Means did not always tell her audience when she had a connection to the companies she promoted. For example, a 'Clean Personal & Home Care Product Recommendations' guide she links to from her website contains two dozen affiliate or partner links and no disclosure that she could profit from any sales. Advertisement Means has said she invested in Function Health, which provides subscription-based lab testing for $500 annually. Of the more than a dozen online posts the AP found in which Means mentioned Function Health, more than half did not disclose she had any affiliation with the company. Means also listed the supplement company Zen Basil as a company for which she was an 'Investor and/or Advisor.' The AP found posts on Instagram, X and on Facebook where Means promoted its products without disclosing the relationship. Though the 'About' page on her website discloses an affiliation with both companies, that's not enough, experts said. She is required to disclose any material connection she has to a company anytime she promotes it. Representatives for Function Health did not return messages seeking comment through their website and executives' LinkedIn profiles. Zen Basil's founder, Shakira Niazi, did not answer questions about Means' business relationship with the company or her disclosures of it. She said the two had known each other for about four years and called Means' advice 'transformational,' saying her teachings reversed Niazi's prediabetes and other ailments. 'I am proud to sponsor her newsletter through my company,' Niazi said in an email. While the disclosure requirements are rarely enforced by the FTC, Means should have been informing her readers of any connections regardless of whether she was violating any laws, said Olivier Sylvain, a Fordham Law School professor who was previously a senior adviser to the FTC chair. 'What you want in a surgeon general, presumably, is someone who you trust to talk about tobacco, about social media, about caffeinated alcoholic beverages, things that present problems in public health,' Sylvain said, adding, 'Should there be any doubt about claims you make about products?' Potential conflicts pose new ethical questions Means isn't the first surgeon general nominee whose financial entanglements have raised eyebrows. Jerome Adams, who served as surgeon general from 2017 to 2021, filed federal disclosure forms that showed he invested in several health technology, insurance and pharmaceutical companies before taking the job — among them Pfizer, Mylan and UnitedHealth Group. He also invested in the food and drink giant Nestle. He divested those stocks when he was confirmed for the role and pledged that he and his immediate family would not acquire financial interest in certain industries regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Vivek Murthy, who served as surgeon general twice, under Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, made more than $2 million in COVID-19-related speaking and consulting fees from Carnival, Netflix, Estee Lauder and Airbnb between holding those positions. He pledged to recuse himself from matters involving those parties for a period of time. Means has not yet gone through a Senate confirmation hearing and has not yet announced the ethical commitments she will make for the role. Hund said that as influencer marketing becomes more common, it is raising more ethical questions, such as what past influencers who enter government should do to avoid the appearance of a conflict. Other administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, have also promoted companies on social media without disclosing their financial ties. 'This is like a learning moment in the evolution of our democracy,' Hund said. 'Is this a runaway train that we just have to get on and ride, or is this something that we want to go differently?' Swenson reported from New York.
