A controversial report by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, linked to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is facing backlash for citing non-existent scientific studies. The report, which blamed rising chronic illnesses in American children on processed food, chemicals, stress, and overprescription of medications and vaccines, listed around 500 scientific references—some of which turned out to be fabricated.
Digital news outlet NOTUS first uncovered the discrepancies, revealing at least seven studies in the report’s footnotes that didn’t exist. Some links were broken, and conclusions were misstated. Reuters independently confirmed two of these errors.
In response, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said, “Any citation errors were due to formatting issues.” A revised version of the report was uploaded Thursday, but no clarification was provided on how the errors occurred.
Despite the errors, the Department of Health and Human Services defended the document, saying, “The substance of the MAHA report remains the same, a historic and transformative assessment by the federal government to understand the chronic disease epidemic afflicting our nation’s children.”
Experts Raise Red Flags Over Accuracy and AI Use
Critics argue the mistakes reflect a broader concern about scientific rigor under Kennedy’s leadership. Marion Nestle, professor emerita of nutrition and public health at NYU, commented, “Nobody has ever accused RFK Jr. of academic rigor. The speed (of the MAHA report) suggests that it could not have been vetted carefully… The citation problem suggests a reliance on AI.”
These so-called AI “hallucinations” fabricated content created by generative AI tools have appeared in court filings and other official documents since tools like ChatGPT gained popularity.
Katherine Keyes, an epidemiology professor at Columbia University, was falsely listed as the author of a study titled “Changes in mental health and substance use among U.S. adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.” She denied ever writing such a paper, saying, “It does make me concerned given that citation practices are an important part of conducting and reporting rigorous science.”
Similarly, Robert L. Findling, a psychiatry professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, was falsely credited with a study on youth drug advertising. A university spokesperson confirmed the citation was inaccurate.
Both of these fake studies had been quietly removed from the White House website by Thursday evening.
Kennedy’s Controversial Tenure as Health Secretary
Since taking office, Kennedy has taken bold and controversial actions. He’s slashed federal health agency staff and cut billions in biomedical research funding. His history of vaccine skepticism continues to raise alarms within the medical community.
The incident with the MAHA report has further intensified scrutiny over his handling of public health policy, especially amid concerns about the reliance on AI-generated content in official government documents.
