Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. released a document last week titled “The MAHA report” (an acronym for “Make America Healthy Again”), which was found to contain invented citations to academic works that do not exist. The document, commissioned by President Trump via executive order in February, sought to elaborate the administration’s plan to tackle chronic disease and improve children’s health, covering a broad range of issues including the effects of chemicals the in environment, ultra-processed foods, and “the overmedicalization of our kids.”
One of the fake studies cited in a footnote is supposedly titled “Changes in mental health and substance use among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The scholar cited as well as the journal, both exist – Dr. Katherine Keyes and JAMA Pediatrics, respectively – but the URL in the citation leads to an error page. “It makes me concerned about the rigor of the report, if these really basic citation practices aren’t being followed,” Keyes told the New York Times.
Speaking in a press briefing on Friday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the issues with the report while still defending it. “I understand there was some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed and the report will be updated,” she told reporters in a briefing. “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.”
The White House has since made a series of corrections and republished updated versions with corrected citations, but issues remain. NOTUS, the news outlet that first uncovered the fabricated citations, found that in the re-released version of the report, studies that were indeed authentic were being cited for claims that they did not support.
The revised MAHA report argues that psychotherapy is more effective at treating mental health concerns in children than medication, citing the work of psychologist Pim Cuijpers. However, the Amsterdam-based academic told NOTUS that the work cited does not support that claim, as it focuses on treatment for adults, and the two “cannot be compared.” Cuijpers also added that the MAHA report “fails to state that the combination of therapy and antidepressants is superior to therapy or antidepressants alone.” NOTUS also spoke to a pulmonologist who called the MAHA report’s citing of his work a “tremendous leap of faith,” as his discrete findings on overprescription of asthma medication in Texas were generalized to the whole country.
As of this writing, at least 18 citations have been changed from the original document published on May 21st, with at least seven removed altogether.
According to President Trump’s executive order commissioning the MAHA report dated February 13th, the authors of the report are expected to submit “a Make Our Children Healthy Again Strategy based on the findings from the Assessment” within 180 days of the order, which would be August 12th.
