HHS Revises MAHA Report After Errors, AI Accusations

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “Make Our Children Healthy Again” report was revised Thursday after multiple citations were found to reference nonexistent sources. 

The Details: The report, originally published last week, cited 522 studies, seven of which were reportedly erroneous. The report was revised with some updated citations and data after NOTUS (unrated) exhibited the errors. Its statements and structure led to unproven accusations that the HHS nontransparently used artificial intelligence. 

Key Quote: “Minor citation and formatting errors have been corrected, but the substance of the MAHA report remains the same — a historic and transformative assessment by the federal government to understand the chronic disease epidemic afflicting our nation’s children,” stated HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon.

How The Media Covered It: The error was covered minimally by news media on the right. Blaze Media (Right bias) centered its brief coverage on the revisions rather than the errors. It referred to the errors as “broken links and studies that apparently did not exist” and did not highlight resulting criticisms. NBC News (Lean Left) referenced some positive responses from health experts on the report but mainly addressed the errors’ criticisms. Reuters (Center) highlighted HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s criticism of some vaccines. It quoted both support and defense of the report but noted that corrections were made “without providing details on how the mistakes had occurred.” NBC reportedly verified four of the original citations as erroneous, and Reuters reportedly verified two. Both outlets mentioned speculation that artificial intelligence was used to generate the report, while Blaze did not.

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