The MAHA Report Has Been Updated With Fresh Errors

[Nevilledog]

https://www.notus.org/health-science/maha-report-update-citation-errors

No paywall link
https://archive.li/sqT8z

The Trump administration’s clean up of the “Make America Healthy Again” Commission’s hallmark and error-riddled report is opening new questions about how the report’s authors drew some of its sweeping conclusions about the state of Americans’ health.

At least 18 of the original report’s citations have been edited or completely swapped out for new references since NOTUS first revealed the errors Thursday morning. While some of the original report’s inconsistencies have been changed, a few of the new updated citations continue to misinterpret scientific studies.

One study NOTUS identified as misinterpreted in the original report was intended to support the claim that psychotherapy is more effective for children than medication for treating mental health concerns. That study was swapped out with a new “systematic overview” authored by psychologist Pim Cuijpers, who told NOTUS via email that MAHA’s new citation is also wrong.

Cuijpers said his referenced study doesn’t cover psychiatric medications in children at all — the research was focused on adults. The citation is located in a section of the MAHA report titled, “American children are highly medicated – and it’s not working.”

“Treatments of depression in adolescents have a different efficacy than treatments in adults, so they cannot be compared, and this reference is therefore not usable in adolescents,” said Cuijpers, one of Amsterdam’s most-cited psychologists. “It also fails to state that the combination of therapy and antidepressants is superior to therapy or antidepressants alone.”

He added that there is no evidence that psychotherapy is more effective than antidepressants in adolescents.

*snip*

[C_U_L8R]

1. Their corruption is only exceeded by their stupidity

And laziness.

[yardwork]

4. They can't even be bothered to lie effectively.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Karoline Leavitt will explain it all away

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Just More Formatting Errors

Formatting! She actually said that!

[BoRaGard]

3. How perfectly republicon

American taxpayers will be billed in triplicate for this typical republicon malfeasance/incompetence.

[tanyev]

5. Meet the new AI slop, same as the old AI slop.

[SheltieLover]

6. Exactly!

[highplainsdem]

7. +1,000,000

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. Maddow Blog-As more fake citations emerge in the 'MAHA' report, White House struggles with a defense

To describe references to nonexistent scientific research as “some formatting issues” is like saying the Titanic confronted “some evening issues.”

As more fake citations emerge in the ‘MAHA’ report, White House struggles with a defense
To describe references to nonexistent scientific research as “some formatting issues” is like saying the Titanic confronted “some evening issues.” www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

— Democracy Skies in Blueness - Resist (@democracyblue.bsky.social) 2025-05-30T13:28:42.960Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/fake-citations-emerge-maha-report-white-house-struggles-defense-rcna209915

Almost immediately after Donald Trump and his White House team unveiled “The MAHA Report: Making Our Children Healthy Again” last week, problems emerged. The Washington Post reported, for example, that some of the report’s suggestions “stretched the limits of science,” and offered “misleading representations” of scientific research.

A week later, a devastating report published by NOTUS advanced the underlying story considerably, highlighting the unambiguous fact that the MAHA document “misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.” Soon after, The New York Times identified “additional faulty references” in the report. From the Times’ article:

The Trump administration released a report last week that it billed as a “clear, evidence-based foundation” for action on a range of children’s health issues. But the report, from the presidential Make America Healthy Again Commission, cited studies that did not exist. These included fictitious studies on direct-to-consumer drug advertising, mental illness and medications prescribed for children with asthma.

While there’s been no official explanation for how, exactly, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team managed to release a much-hyped official document with fake citations, multiple reports noted the likely culprit. As The Washington Post reported, “Some of the citations ... appear to have been generated using artificial intelligence, resulting in numerous garbled scientific references and invented studies, AI experts said Thursday.”

.....For example, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was pressed for some kind of explanation for the MAHA debacle. The president’s chief spokesperson responded by claiming there were “some formatting issues” with the document.

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:iu4j537hox5huj4bwnwgub4z/post/3lqdc55klup2i

Link to tweet

.....Leavitt nevertheless added that the White House has “complete confidence” in Kennedy. She didn’t elaborate as to why, exactly, Kennedy remains in the president’s good graces, though it appears to have something to do with Trump’s indifference to whether the conspiracy theorist leading the Department of Health and Human Services gets things right or wrong.