US government report cited non-existent sources, academics say

A US government report on children’s health cited “totally fabricated” studies to back up its findings, academics wrongly listed as the authors of those studies have said.

First released on 22 May, the report detailed causes of a “chronic disease crisis” among children in the US. An amended version was issued on 29 May after digital outlet NOTUS found it had used seven non-existent sources.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said there were “formatting issues” and the report would be updated, but it did “not negate the substance of the report”.

US Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has promoted debunked claims that vaccines cause autism, leads the department behind the report.

It comes on the back of one of US President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive orders earlier this year, specifically to “study the scope of the childhood chronic disease crisis and any potential contributing causes”.

Issued by the Make America Healthy Again Commission, the report concluded that poor diet, environmental toxins, stress, insufficient physical activity and “overmedicalisation” may contribute to chronic illness among American children.

But the authors of several studies cited in the report told news outlets they did not write them, and that the studies never existed.

Guohua Li, a Columbia University professor who was named as an author of a report on the mental health of children in the pandemic, told Agence France-Presse that the reference was “totally fabricated” and that he does not even know the listed co-author.

He was listed as an author alongside Noah Kreski, a researcher at Columbia University, who also denied writing it, telling AFP it “doesn’t appear to be a study that exists at all.”

Katherine Keyes, an epidemiology professor who told news agency Reuters she was also wrongly named as an author, said: “It does make me concerned given that citation practices are an important part of conducting and reporting rigorous science.”

Another study cited about the advertising of psychotropic medications for youth was not written by the listed author, the university that employs him told AFP and Reuters.

The Democratic National Committee accused RFK Jr.’s Department of Health and Human Services of “justifying its policy priorities with sources that do not exist” and using citations that “are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions”.

RFK Jr was sworn in as US Health Secretary in February. Since taking office he has cut thousands of jobs in the health department and made plans to introduce placebo trials for all new vaccines.