Wellness influencer and entrepreneur Dr. Casey Means shared a vision for addressing the root causes of chronic disease instead of what she calls “reactive sick care” during her confirmation hearing to become the next surgeon general. Wednesday's hearing in the Senate health committee was rescheduled from October, when Means went into labor the day she was set to appear. Means' message that dietary and lifestyle changes are needed to heal an ill and struggling nation aligns closely with that of her ally Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. But she also faced tough questions about topics that have become divisive in recent years, such as vaccines and hormonal birth control, as well as about her qualifications for the job.

In the 1970s, the agency that provides health care to Native Americans sterilized thousands of women without their full and informed consent. Decades later, the state of New Mexico is set to investigate a little known but troubling history that haunts Native families. New Mexico legislators approved a measure this week to have state agencies examine the history, scope and continuing impacts of forced and coerced sterilization by the Indian Health Service and other providers. Outside of a 1976 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, the federal government has never acknowledged this history.

Thailand has begun using a birth control vaccine on elephants in the wild to try curb a growing problem where human and animal populations encroach on each other. They say the problem has increased as farms spread into forests and elephants, squeezed in their natural habitat, come into contact and clash with humans while searching for food. Official figures say wild elephants killed 30 people last year and injured 29. Thai veterinarians tested the vaccine on seven domesticated elephants over two years before giving shots to three wild elephants in Trat province in late January. The vaccine blocks pregnancy for about seven years.