White House blames 'formatting' for errors in RFK Jr.'s MAHA report. Authors push back.
Citation errors and phantom research used as scientific evidence to bolster Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s landmark 'Make America Healthy Again' commission report were apparently due to 'formatting issues,' according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order to establish a commission that was tasked with investigating chronic illnesses and childhood diseases, which culminated in the 'Make Our Children Healthy Again' assessment that was published May 22.
However, researchers listed in the report have since come forward saying the articles cited don't exist or were used to support facts that were inconsistent with their research. The errors were first reported by NOTUS.
'I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed and the report will be updated,' Leavitt told reporters May 29. 'But it does not negate the substance of the report.'
She also didn't say whether the report was generated by artificial intelligence, or AI, as some have questioned.
Although it's difficult to determine whether scientific articles are generated or 'touched up' by AI, there are telling signs, said Yuan Luo, professor and chief AI officer at Northwestern University's clinical and translational sciences institute.
Some of those signs may include citation gaps, factual inconsistencies and irrelevant conclusions derived from random research.
MAHA report: RFK slams processed foods, pesticides, vaccines as harmful to kids
The MAHA report erroneously said an article on the impact of light from computer monitors was published in the journal Pediatrics when it wasn't, according to the study's author Mariana Figueiro, a professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The report also cited Figueiro's research as evidence that electronic devices in children's bedrooms disrupted sleep onset. However, she said the study was on college students and researchers measured melatonin suppression, not sleep.
'The study is ours, but unfortunately, the conclusions in the report are not accurate and the journal reference is incorrect,' Figueiro told USA TODAY via email. 'We have other papers on the topic… but again, none of them were performed with children.'
The MAHA report also cited Columbia University epidemiologist Katherine Keyes as first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents. As first reported by NOTUS and confirmed by USA TODAY, Keyes said she did not write the paper cited by the MAHA report.
'I was surprised to see what seems to be an error in the citation of my work in the report, and it does make me concerned given that citation practices are an important part of conducting and reporting rigorous science,' Keyes told USA TODAY via email.
Keyes has studied the topic and published a recent study in JAMA Network Open that adolescent girls had higher levels of depressive symptoms than boys, but her study's figures did not match what the MAHA report cited.
She said her earlier research on depression and anxiety symptoms yielded results 'that are generally in the ballpark of the MAHA report, although I'm not sure where their exact ranges are drawn from.'
Keyes said she would be happy to send information to the MAHA committee to correct the report, but she doesn't know where to reach the report's authors.
Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, a site that tracks retractions in scientific journals and research, said the MAHA report seemed to share characteristics similar to other AI-generated work.
AI papers 'tend to hallucinate references,' he said. 'They come up with references that share a lot of words and authors and even journals, journal names, but they're not real."
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon said the report has been updated to correct "minor citation and formatting errors."
"But 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," he said. "Under President Trump and Secretary Kennedy, our federal government is no longer ignoring this crisis, and it's time for the media to also focus on what matters."
Oransky noted the MAHA report comes as Kennedy said he may prohibit government scientists from publishing research in major peer-reviewed medical journals such as JAMA, Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine 'because they're all corrupt.'
Kennedy proposed an HHS publication where government scientists could publish research findings.
"When scientific reform is weaponized to only denigrate science and scientists whose studies contradict your beliefs or your wishes, we get to a very dark place,' Oransky said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: RFK Jr.'s MAHA report errors: Was it AI or 'formatting issues?'
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