Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” report cites fabricated studies and draws the wrong conclusions.
The secretary of health and human services brags that the report, released last week, is based on “gold-standard” science drawn from over 500 studies and other sources. But in reality, NOTUS found, its citations are error-ridden, with missing links, incorrect conclusions, and sometimes even made-up studies.
In one case, the supposed author of a study on anxiety in adolescents, epidemiologist Katherine Keyes, was surprised to find she was cited in the report for a paper she didn’t even write.
“The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” Keyes told the publication in an 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.”
In fact, the study in question—“Changes in mental health and substance abuse among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic”—may not have been written by anyone. The link to it in the report doesn’t work, and the citation claims that it appeared in the twelfth issue of the 176th edition of the journal JAMA Pediatrics, which doesn’t contain a study with that title.
That isn’t the only study cited by the MAHA report that doesn’t seem to exist. Two studies cited in a section titled the “corporate capture of media” about how drug advertisements have led to more ADHD and antidepressant prescriptions being written for kids don’t show up in scientific journals, according to NOTUS. One of its listed authors told the publication that he never wrote such a paper, and another author may not exist—they don’t have a digital footprint.
In other parts of the MAHA report, conclusions are drawn from papers that don’t even touch on the topics or methods Kennedy’s report cites, and other researchers cited in the report claim their studies were mischaracterized. Kennedy doesn’t seem to be aware of the issues in the report, extolling how great it is on social media.
“Never in American history has the federal government taken a position on public health like this,” Kennedy said, according to a White House post on X.
Kennedy has a long history of pushing medical misinformation. A well-known anti-vaccine activist, his tenure as HHS secretary has been marked by questionable decisions and statements. Kennedy has stopped the department from recommending Covid vaccines for children and pregnant women, claimed that the measles vaccine contains aborted fetuses, and pushed for fluoride to be removed from state water supplies, among many other misguided decisions.
Earlier this week, Kennedy threatened to bar scientists in the National Institutes of Health from publishing their work in the world’s leading medical journals, claiming that the publications are “corrupt.” That was before he published his error-riddled report, though. Earlier this month, Kennedy did say something that is worth following: He said the public should not look to him for medical advice. Considering how much information in his signature report appears to be made up, that sounds like a good idea.
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