According to scientists, at least four of the studies cited in a report by the US government on children’s health do not exist. As several of the researchers of the AFP news agency mentioned in the report on Thursday, the studies cited are not aware of them. AFP spoke to Noah Kreski, a researcher at the Columbia University in New York, who was mentioned in the government report as an author of a study on anxiety and depression among young people during the corona apandemy. The quote mentioned in the report “does not come from one of our studies,” said Kreski. In his assessment, the study does not exist at all. The quote corresponding is provided with a link in the report that is supposed to lead to an article in the respected science magazine “Jama”, but does not work. According to a spokesman for the “Jama” network, there is no such quote in a “Jama” publication. She said AFP that she did not know where the information mentioned in the report came from and she “did not write this paper”. She would be happy to contact the committee responsible for the government report to correct the information, but has so far received no contact information, added Keyes. Another Columbia researcher, Guoahua Li, also mentioned, said AFP that the quote that he allegedly came from was “freely invented”. He does not know his alleged co-authors Kreski. Another scientist contacted by AFP, a university spokesman and a science publisher that are related to studies called in the government report. According to the AFP research, there are discrepancies for at least four studies mentioned. Government spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that the report had “formatting errors”. “This does not question the content of the report,” she added. In addition to how exactly the report had been created and whether artificial intelligence (AI) was used, Leavitt said nothing. In an updated version of the report, the quotations examined by AFP were provided with new links to existing sources. In one case, a link instead of a scientific publication led to an article in the “New York Times”. On Thursday, the US news portal “Notus” had drawn attention to the mistakes in the report. Ministry of Health of Minister Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Attempts to “justify his political priorities with studies and sources that do not exist”. Kennedy called the report a “call for actions for common sense”. The commission he deployed had particularly examined the nutrition of children and adolescents. It comes to the conclusion that highly processed foods and additives favored chronic diseases. Further aspects are named environmental toxins and insufficient movement, but this also means alleged health risks through vaccinations – although this does not match the scientific consensus. Kennedy used to be a respected lawyer for environmental law before increasingly attracting attention with conspiracy counts. In the past, he also repeatedly represented the refuted theory that vaccinations in childhood led to autism. In April he commissioned a corresponding investigation.
