The White House is catching serious heat over a new report on children’s health that was supposed to be a major move in fighting chronic disease. But instead of sparking confidence, the report from the Make America Healthy Again Commission—led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.—has raised eyebrows for all the wrong reasons.
Researchers quickly spotted a major issue: some of the scientific studies listed in the report just don’t exist. Others were misrepresented, listed the wrong authors, or came from the wrong journals. Even Columbia University’s Katherine Keyes, whose name appeared in the report, says she never wrote the study they cited under her name.
Critics say the mistakes suggest that the report may have been slapped together using artificial intelligence, which has caused similar issues in the legal world. While the White House hasn’t confirmed if A.I. played a role, they’ve since uploaded a “corrected” version of the document. But the damage to its credibility is already done.
Doctors and researchers agree that some of the concerns in the report—like the rise in youth depression and the dangers of ultra-processed foods—are real. But the sloppy citations call the entire document into question, especially more controversial claims like vaccine safety doubts that don’t align with established science.
One particularly troubling example? The report claimed a psychiatric manual published in 2013 caused a spike in childhood diagnoses between 1994 and 2003. That’s a decade-long mismatch, pointing to basic fact-checking failures.
Experts say it’s not just about getting names and dates right. In science, citations are the backbone of trust. When even those fall apart, everything else does too.
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