RFK JR.’S EVIL ASININE INEPT NONSENSE

FORGET FOR THE MOMENT ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.’s brain worm, his hiding a  bear carcass in Central Park, his toting a whale head atop his car, and even his cod liver oil treatment for measles, the Secretary of Health and Human Services is inept, asinine, and evil.

A Bogus Report. Emily Kennard and Margaret Manto give details in “The MAHA Report Cites Studies That Don’t Exist,” NOTUS, May 29, 2025. The NOTUS researchers recount, “Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says his ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Commission report harnesses ‘gold-standard’ science, citing more than 500 studies and other sources to back up its claims. Those citations, though, are rife with errors, from broken links to misstated conclusions. Seven of the cited sources don’t appear to exist at all.”

Let us ponder “gold-standard” science.

Kennard and Manto continue, “Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes is listed in the MAHA report as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents. When NOTUS reached out to her this week, she was surprised to hear of the citation. She does study mental health and substance use, she said. But she didn’t write the paper listed. ‘The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,’ Keyes told NOTUS via email. ‘We’ve certainly done research on this topic, but did not publish a paper in JAMA Pediatrics on this topic with that co-author group, or with that title.’ ”

Other Reference Mishaps. “The anxiety study,” Kennard and Manto write, “wasn’t the only one the report cites that appears to be mysteriously absent from the scientific literature. A section describing the ‘corporate capture of media’ highlights two studies that it says are ‘broadly illustrative’ of how a rise in direct-to-consumer drug advertisements has led to more prescriptions being written for ADHD medications and antidepressants for kids. The catch? Neither of those studies is anywhere to be found.”

Kennard and Manto display the two citations, neither appearing in their respective journals. Nor do the cited researchers acknowledge any claims of authorship.

Kennard and Manto recount, “In another section titled, ‘American Children are on Too Much Medicine – A Recent and Emerging Crisis,’ the report claims that 25% to 40% of mild cases of asthma are overprescribed. But searching Google for the exact title of the paper it cites to back up that figure—‘Overprescribing of oral corticosteroids for children with asthma’—leads to only one result: the MAHA report.” A deft bit of mirror reference. 

Medical people whom I respect recommend avoiding bronze sunburns. Image by Jacquelyn Martin/AP from NPR.

High Praise from RFK Jr. Kennard and Manto write, “Kennedy has enthusiastically promoted the report, calling it a “milestone” in a post on X after its release. ‘Never in American history has the federal government taken a position on public health like this,’ Kennedy wrote.”

Well, that’s for sure. And, one hopes, never again once this faux-academic dust settles.

From NBC News. Aria Bendix and Brandy Zadrozny write,“Trump Admin Corrects RFK Jr.’s MAHA Report After Citation Errors,” NBC News, May 30, 2025. They write, “The citation errors add to the strange nature of the MAHA report, released last week by the White House, which has no public authors and echoes many of the passion projects of its chair, Kennedy. The commission in charge of the report consists of high-ranking officials across various federal agencies, only two of whom are medical doctors.”

Bendix and Zadrozny recount, “The report, which stretches more than 70 pages, claims to identify four main causes of chronic diseases in children: ultraprocessed food, environmental toxins, the overprescribing of medications and sedentary, technology-driven lifestyles. It does not mention the leading cause of children’s deaths in the country: guns.”

Generative A.I. the Culprit? “The false citations,” the NBC News researchers note, “sparked some speculation that generative AI may have been used in the creation of the report. The Washington Post reported that the website URLs of some references included ‘oaicite,’ which OpenAI’s systems are known to add to citations.”

Image from telusdigital.com.

See “Grok Goes Bonkers” for more on these selectively generated hallucinations.

The Administration’s Response. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt attributed the false citations to “formatting issues.” She is quoted by NBC News as saying (in best PR understatement), “I understand there were some formatting issues with the MAHA report that are being addressed, and the report will be updated, but it does not negate the substance of the report, backed on good science.”

I see, “good science” such as brain worms, variously placed deceased wild life, and cod liver oil treatments when a perfectly honed vaccine has long been available—now combined with A.I. hallucinations. ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025