Beijing, May 30th – A report released last week by the “Let America Be Healthy Again” committee on behalf of the US federal government, focusing on American children’s health, has come under fire. On May 29th, US media revealed significant issues with the report, which was intended to guide future US health policies. The report contained non-existent references, broken links, and misinterpreted or disproven studies. The White House responded by stating that the report only had “format issues” and that its content remained unaffected, with errors already corrected.
Non-Existent Studies and Distorted Citations
The 72-page report, released on May 22nd by the “Make America Healthy Again” committee chaired by US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, cited around 500 studies. It suggested that processed foods, chemicals, mental stress, excessive vaccinations, and over-medicalization could be causes of chronic diseases in American children.
However, the non-profit NOTUS News website reported on May 29th that it had identified multiple errors in the report’s references and other sections. For example, seven of the cited studies did not exist, some links led to invalid pages, and certain research conclusions were misrepresented.
The report claimed to reference a paper titled “Psychological Health and Medication Use Among American Adolescents During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in “JAMA Pediatrics”, authored by Columbia University epidemiologist Professor Catherine Case. But Case confirmed that neither she nor the other named authors had written such an article. “Citations are crucial for serious research and report – writing, and this is very concerning,” she said.
The report also attributed a paper on teenage anxiety and depression during the COVID-19 pandemic to Noah Kreisky, a researcher at Columbia University. Kreisky told AFP that the paper “was not part of our research.” Moreover, a link in the report claiming to lead to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association – Pediatrics was inaccessible, and a spokesperson for the journal confirmed that no such article had been published in any of its affiliated journals.
Notably, Kennedy has long been known as an “anti-vaccine advocate,” having linked autism to the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines. The report’s content appears to align with his views, despite numerous studies disproving this connection since a now-discredited 1990s paper first proposed the theory.
White House’s Defense Met with Skepticism
White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt told a press conference on May 29th that issues in the report’s references and footnotes were due to “format problems” and that “the main content of the report stands.” She described it as “one of the most transformative health reports issued by the federal government so far.”
The Associated Press reported that the report will be used to formulate policy recommendations, with relevant guidelines set to be released later this year. The White House has asked Congress to allocate $500 million to the “Let America Be Healthy Again” committee.
Leavitt refused to answer questions about the report’s writing process or whether artificial intelligence was involved. She also declined to disclose the authors’ information, insisting that the White House “fully trusts” Kennedy and his team, claiming their work is “based on rigorous science.”
However, her statements have failed to convince. The Democratic National Committee called the report “riddled with misinformation,” accusing Kennedy’s organization of using “non-existent research and sources to justify its policy priorities.”
Since taking office, Kennedy, with his anti-vaccination stance, has raised concerns among the scientific and medical communities. He has fired thousands of employees from federal health agencies and cut billions of dollars in US biomedical research funding. US public opinion warns that these actions could severely impact the stability and authority of the US public health system and drug approval mechanisms, posing risks to public health and the US’s global public health standing.
Later on May 29th, the White House website updated the report, removing the non-existent studies and replacing some questionable links.
Related topics：
