The MAHA Report Cites Studies That Don't Exist

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: NOTUS

HEALTH & SCIENCE

The MAHA Report Cites Studies That Don't Exist

The Trump administration's "Make America Healthy Again" report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don't exist, according to the listed authors.


Jacquelyn Martin/AP

By Emily Kennard and Margaret Manto
May 29, 2025 05:36 AM

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his "Make America Healthy Again" Commission report harnesses "gold-standard" science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions. ... Seven of the cited sources don't appear to exist at all.

Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes is listed in the MAHA report as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents. When NOTUS reached out to her this week, she was surprised to hear of the citation. She does study mental health and substance use, she said. But she didn't write the paper listed.

"The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with," Keyes told NOTUS via email. "We've certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title."

It's not clear that anyone wrote the study cited in the MAHA report. The citation refers to a study titled, "Changes in mental health and substance abuse among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic," along with a nonfunctional link to the study's digital object identifier. While the citation claims that the study appeared in the 12th issue of the 176th edition of the journal JAMA Pediatrics, that issue didn't include a study with that title.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.notus.org/health-science/make-america-healthy-again-report-citation-errors

---

Hat tip, Kevin Kruse and Tim Murphy

Reposted by Kevin M. Kruse
https://bsky.app/profile/kevinmkruse.bsky.social

again all of this stuff is resignation-level for literally everyone involved www.notus.org/health-scien...

— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy.bsky.social) 2025-05-29T13:20:10.289Z

Tim Murphy
‪@timothypmurphy.bsky.social‬

Follow
again all of this stuff is resignation-level for literally everyone involved www.notus.org/health-scien...

The MAHA Report Cites Studies That Don't Exist
The Trump administration's "Make America Healthy Again" report misinterprets some studies and cites others that don't exist, according to the listed authors.
www.notus.org
May 29, 2025 at 9:20 AM

[underpants]

1. Flat out don't exist. Incredible

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. AI Health because 47 and RFnKjr are sub-par intelligences

McMahon in that pic is another subpar. She thinks A1 is the secret sauce for making teachers and her Department unnecessary and redundant.

A Confederacy of dunces.

[Grins]

3. "The Trump administration's...report misinterprets..."

It did not "misinterpret." It LIED! Blatantly!

[LiberalArkie]

4. I smell Stephen Miller.

But when is RFK jr going to require everyone to use tanning beds instead of vaccines?

[Martin68]

5. Much like AI, MAGA often hallucinates. Perhaps they are not truly human?

[carpetbagger]

6. Ai hallucinates references.

I've spotted some towards the end of my career as a physician. likely some staffer created the report with AI. Because it's pretty hard to support his stuff with literature.

[republianmushroom]

7. More of republican governing.

If it doesn't exist, then it is hard to show that the information is wrong.

[IronLionZion]

8. And MAGA idiots will cite this MAHA report

thereby promoting it as a credible source to gullible people who don't know any better. It's the circle of BS.

[flashman13]

9. I feel so much safer knowing our health and lives are in the hands of the MAGAts.

And not in the hands of those pesky scientists.

[FoggyLake]

10. My guess is that they are using AI to write fictional papers.

[JCMach1]

11. 100% POOR AI usage with no crosschecking

Literally, a person with little or very poor knowledge of both AI and research practices had AI write this government report.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

12. Maddow Blog-The Trump administration's 'MAHA Report' cites nonexistent scientific studies

There's new evidence that the White House's “The MAHA Report: Making Our Children Healthy Again” relied in part on scientific research that doesn't exist.

In case this isn’t obvious: In a healthy political system, if officials released a hyped report on health policy, and the document relied on scientific sources that didn’t exist, those officials would be expected to resign — quickly. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-05-29T17:43:57.657Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-administrations-maha-report-cites-nonexistent-scientific-studies-rcna209732

With this in mind, no one was especially surprised when the White House report started crumbling under scrutiny. The Washington Post reported, “Some of the report’s suggestions ... stretched the limits of science, medical experts said. Several sections of the report offer misleading representations of findings in scientific papers.”

That was last week. This week, NOTUS advanced these concerns, reporting that the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report “misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.”

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his “Make America Healthy Again” Commission report harnesses “gold-standard” science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions. Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all. ... NOTUS also found serious issues with how the report interpreted some of the existing studies it cites.

For example, the administration’s document listed epidemiologist Katherine Keyes as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents — except she didn’t write it.

“The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” Keyes told NOTUS. “We’ve certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title.”....

I would gladly make note of the defense of the MAHA document from Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services, but at least so far, neither the controversial secretary nor the Cabinet agency he ostensibly leads has commented on these new allegations. HHS did not respond to NOTUS' request for comment on the citation inconsistencies, the outlet reported.

Of course, given Kennedy’s recent track record, there’s no reason to assume he’d be able to answer questions about the document anyway.

To be sure, the traditional norms surrounding American politics have been largely shattered, but in a situation like this one, it’s worth emphasizing that in a normal and healthy political system, if officials released a much-hyped report on public health policy, and scrutiny found that the document relied on scientific sources that didn’t exist, those officials would be expected to resign — quickly.

Bob aka RFK JR does not want people to publish is the Lancet or the New England Journal of Medicine because these publications are peer reviewed and check sources.

[FakeNoose]

13. I agree with Tim Murphy - they should all resign

[xocetaceans]

14. And Leavitt claimed today that the fake citations were merely "formatting issues". That is seen on C-SPAN below.

At about 24:46 in the C-SPAN video, the question regarding the HHS MAHA report is asked and Leavitt replies:

Reporter: "...Does the White House has confidence that the information coming from HHS can be trusted?"

Leavitt: "Yes. We have complete confidence in Secretary Kennedy and his team at HHS. I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed, and the report will be updated. But it does not negate the substance of the report which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that has ever been released by the federal government and is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government.

In the follow-up question, the reporter asks if HHS had used AI to write the report, and Leavitt claims no further knowledge, deflects answering the follow-up question, and moves on to the next reporter for a different question.

https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/white-house-daily-briefing/660558

[sarcasm] If it is merely an issue of formatting, I agree that it would be preferable (at a minimum) if the White House and HHS would do the world the courtesy of setting all of their future, fake citations in a large, boldface Wingdings font. [/sarcasm]

[2naSalit]

15. No surprise there either.