White House Plans to Revise Key Health Report Due to Misattributed Research Findings; White House Press Office Claims Formatting Glitches, Maintains Report's Significance Remains Intact
The U.S. government has acknowledged it will update a crucial child health report, initially published by the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission, due to erroneous citations. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed these errors to "formatting issues," claiming that the substance of the report remains credible.
The problems with the report, first exposed by digital news platform NOTUS, included misrepresentations, such as referencing non-existent studies and broken links. The issues have fueled concerns regarding President Donald Trump's decision to appoint Robert F. Kennedy Jr as Health and Human Services Secretary.
The report concluded that factors like processed food, chemicals, stress, overprescription of medications, and vaccines could contribute to chronic illness in children, citing over 500 studies. However, some authors credited for the research indicated being unassociated with the studies or the studies not existing.
Noah Kreski, a researcher from Columbia University, voiced his concerns, stating that the paper attributed to him on adolescent anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic was not one of his studies and appeared to be non-existent. A broken link to an article in the peer-reviewed JAMA Pediatrics Medical Review was also found in the report. The JAMA Network confirmed that the cited article was not published in JAMA Pediatrics or any JAMA Network journal.
The Democratic National Committee criticized the report as "overflowing with misinformation," accusing Kennedy's agency of using questionable studies and sources to justify policy decisions. Kennedy's appointment as health secretary in February sparked considerable controversy, given his history of voicing doubts about vaccine safety, raising concerns within the scientific and medical communities.
Since Kennedy assumed the role, he has made substantial changes, including firing thousands of workers at federal health agencies, cutting billions from biomedical research spending, advocating for in-house scientific journals, and implementing controversial reductions at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- The digital news platform NOTUS discovered misrepresentations in the MAHA Commission's child health report, including references to non-existent studies and broken links.
- A scholar from Columbia University, Noah Kreski, expressed his concerns when he found that a paper attributed to him on adolescent anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic was not one of his studies and seemed non-existent.
- The JAMA Network confirmed that a broken link to an article in the peer-reviewed JAMA Pediatrics Medical Review, found in the report, did not point to a published article in any JAMA Network journal.
- The Democratic National Committee asserted that the MAHA Commission's report was overflowing with misinformation and accused Kennedy's agency of using questionable studies and sources to support its policy decisions, drawing attention in the political arena and raising concerns within the scientific and medical communities.
