The White House on Thursday acknowledged significant problems with a flagship health report led by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after multiple news organizations discovered the document contained citations to studies that do not exist.
The “Make America Healthy Again Commission” report, released last week, was found to contain at least seven citations referencing nonexistent research papers, according to investigations by NOTUS and other news outlets. The 72-page document, which examines children’s health issues, originally included 522 citations supporting its conclusions about chronic disease causes.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed the errors to “some formatting issues” during a Thursday briefing, stating the problems would be corrected. However, experts noted that citation errors represent fundamental problems with scientific rigor rather than simple formatting mistakes.
Among the fabricated citations was a December 2022 study allegedly published in JAMA Pediatrics examining mental health changes in adolescents during the pandemic. Katherine Keyes, a Columbia University epidemiologist listed as the study’s first author, confirmed she did not write the research and expressed concern about the citation practices.
Another false citation credited psychiatric researcher Robert Findling with a study on medication use in children, but Virginia Commonwealth University confirmed Findling was not involved in the research. A spokesperson for the JAMA Network verified that the referenced article was never published in any of their journals.
The White House quietly updated the report Thursday, replacing fake citations with real studies, though it remains unclear whether the replacement studies support the original claims. The updated version also modified statistical claims about adolescent mental health rates and removed language about overprescription of asthma medications.
Andrew Nixon, communications director for the Department of Health and Human Services, indicated that minor citation and formatting errors had been corrected while maintaining the report’s substance remained unchanged. He described it as a historic assessment of chronic disease affecting children.
Experts suspect artificial intelligence may have been used in creating some citations. The Washington Post reported that several reference URLs contained “oaicite,” a marker typically added by OpenAI’s systems to citations. The metadata embedded in the report’s PDF lists Heidi Overton, a medical doctor and deputy director in the White House Domestic Policy Council, as the author.
The MAHA report identifies four main causes of chronic diseases in children: ultraprocessed food, environmental toxins, overprescribing of medications, and sedentary lifestyles. The commission responsible for the report consists of high-ranking federal officials, with only two being medical doctors. Kennedy has refused to release details about who authored the document.
Researchers at the Cato Institute criticized the report in a Wednesday blog post, stating the data bears little relationship to its conclusions. They highlighted instances where the report lacked context or misrepresented information, such as describing childhood obesity as a worsening crisis while showing stable rates over 20 years.
The citation errors have intensified scrutiny of Kennedy’s leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services. Since taking office, he has fired thousands of federal health agency workers and cut billions from biomedical research spending. He previously spent decades questioning vaccine safety, raising concerns among medical professionals.
Columbia University’s Keyes expressed concern that basic citation practices were not followed, questioning the overall rigor of the report. While some public health experts acknowledge the document addresses legitimate issues like links between ultraprocessed foods and health problems, others argue it overstates conclusions and offers few solutions.
The Democratic National Committee condemned the report Thursday as rife with misinformation, accusing Kennedy’s agency of justifying policy priorities with nonexistent studies. The controversy comes as Kennedy has announced plans to potentially ban federal scientists from publishing in respected medical journals, calling them corrupt and proposing government-run alternatives.
The report notably omits mention of guns as the leading cause of children’s deaths in the United States, despite its comprehensive examination of health threats. Multiple versions of the corrected document were uploaded Thursday as the administration attempted to address the scientific credibility issues.
