“MAHA” Report Contains Numerous Errors, Cites Nonexistent Studies

On May 22, 2025, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the release of the "Make America Healthy Again" (MAHA) Commission’s report on childhood chronic diseases. The report, which cites more than 500 studies and other sources, has since been found to contain references to studies that do not exist, misrepresentations of scientific conclusions, and other errors. In one instance, a citation linked to the report itself.

Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes, who was listed as the lead author of a study on anxiety in adolescents, told NOTUS “[t]he paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with.” Meanwhile, the Trump administration says the report offers “a clear, evidence-based foundation for the policy interventions, institutional reforms, and societal shifts needed to reverse course.” 

Update: The White House press secretary and an HHS spokesperson acknowledged the errors, dismissing them as “minor citation and formatting errors.” Seven references to resources that do not exist have since been removed from the report.

Update:  As of May 30, 2025, at least 18 citations in the report had been changed or replaced, including citations to nonexistent studies. However, several of the updated citations continue to misrepresent the findings of scientific studies, and the methodology used to update the report did not follow standard scientific practices. According to epidemiologist David Michaels, “[i]It is a basic practice of scientific journals to note when corrections are made.” But after reporters continued to find errors in the report, the White House stopped identifying changes and removed references to earlier edits.