Hold onto your hats, folks—another government report is under fire, and this time it’s the MAHA Commission’s latest work that’s raising eyebrows for all the wrong reasons.
On May 22, 2025, the MAHA Commission, operating under President Donald Trump’s administration, released a report tackling the troubling decline in children’s health across America, only to face sharp criticism days later for allegedly citing studies that simply don’t exist, the Daily Caller reported.
This isn’t just a typo or a misplaced comma; according to a NOTUS article published on May 29, 2025, at least seven sources referenced in the MAHA report appear to be entirely fabricated.
Let’s dig into the details—because if we’re going to address a crisis as serious as children’s health, the facts better be rock-solid.
One glaring example is a cited study titled “Changes in mental health and substance use among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic,” supposedly published in the 176th issue of JAMA Pediatrics, but guess what? No such study exists in that edition, and the link to it is as broken as a progressive promise on tax cuts.
Even worse, Katherine Keyes, listed as the first author of this phantom paper, flat-out denied any involvement, stating, “The paper cited is not a real paper.”
Keyes doesn’t stand alone in his dismissal—other cited works in the MAHA report also prove elusive.
In the section on “corporate capture of media,” for example, NOTUS flagged two studies as non-existent, including one titled “Direct-to-consumer advertising of psychotropic medications for youth,” which researchers couldn’t find anywhere in the cited issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.
Adding insult to injury, Robert L. Findling, a respected educator at Virginia Commonwealth University and the supposed lead author of that study, didn’t write it, as confirmed by a university spokesperson—talk about a citation catastrophe.
Then there’s another dubious reference, “Direct-to-consumer advertising and the rise in ADHD medication use among children,” which NOTUS reports has no connection to any researcher with a verifiable Google Scholar profile.
That’s not just sloppy—it’s the kind of oversight that makes you wonder if anyone double-checked the homework before turning it in.
Yet, amidst the backlash, a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson defended the report to the Daily Caller, saying, “Minor citation and formatting errors have been corrected, but the substance of the MAHA report remains the same.”
Let’s unpack that HHS statement—when officials call these “minor errors,” they downplay serious failures, much like labeling a shipwreck a “small leak.” Still, we shouldn’t dismiss the core mission of addressing children’s health crises under President Trump’s leadership.
While the citation mess is a genuine stumble, the intent behind the MAHA report—to shine a light on why our kids are sicker than ever—deserves a fair hearing, not a knee-jerk dismissal by media outlets eager to score points against an administration fighting against entrenched bureaucratic nonsense.
Sure, the execution needs work, but isn’t it refreshing to see a government finally prioritizing our children’s well-being over the usual progressive talking points? Turns out, even with flaws, focusing on real issues instead of woke distractions might just be a step in the right direction.
