Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday that the White House has “complete confidence” in Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his “Make America Healthy Again” Commission despite numerous citation inconsistencies in its flagship report.
Leavitt downplayed the citation problems, which were reported by NOTUS earlier Thursday. They include citing papers that don’t appear to exist at all and research that authors say was misinterpreted.
The press secretary played down the issues.
“I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed, and the report will be updated,” she said at a press briefing in response to a question from NOTUS. “But it does not negate the substance of the report, which, as you know, is one of the most transformative health reports that’s ever been released by the federal government, and is backed on good science that has never been recognized by the federal government.”
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NOTUS reported Thursday that the MAHA report had at least seven cited sources that didn’t appear to exist. “The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” one researcher cited in the report told NOTUS. Another denied writing the paper he was cited for, or ever working with the associated researchers on the citation.
Dozens of citations had broken links, missing or incorrect authors and wrong issue numbers. Some studies were found to have been interpreted incorrectly, and the researchers on the reports said MAHA had mischaracterized their work.
“The conclusions in the report are not accurate, and the journal reference is incorrect. It was not published in Pediatrics. Also, the study was not done in children, but in college students,” one researcher, Mariana G. Figueiro, emailed NOTUS.
Asked about how the report was written, and if artificial intelligence was part of the process, Leavitt said, “I can’t speak to that” and referred NOTUS to HHS.
HHS has not replied to NOTUS’ request for comment on the report.
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Nuha Dolby is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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