Ex-Health Sec Calls ‘BS' on White House MAHA Report Excuses
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s predecessor has called him out for the bungled Make America Healthy Again report.
The MAHA report, which HHS released to much fanfare this week, was riddled with errors and cited nonexistent studies to back its claims. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the mistakes as 'formatting issues.'
'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,' Leavitt said Friday.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who served under the Biden administration, was having none of it.
'This 'formatting' BS doesn't sell,' Becerra told Mother Jones. 'You're supposed to do that checking before you publish, at least if you're a rigorous publisher.'
'We caught this one,' Becerra said of the faulty report. 'Which ones didn't we catch?'
Kennedy's MAHA report included a slew of errors in its citations, and a portion of the more than 500 cited sources do not even exist, NOTUS found.
Becerra said Friday that he tried to hold back on criticizing the Trump administration until it got 'a chance to settle in.' But at this point, 'They got their chance.'
'I'm going to start talking,' said Becerra, who recently announced a run for California governor. 'We have an obligation to protect the health of the American people, and to be silent is to acquiesce. There are too many people acquiescing to what's going on right now.'
Becerra further denounced Kennedy's longstanding refusal to promote the measles vaccine and his recent announcement that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend the COVID vaccine for children or pregnant women.
'Two young children died in Texas this year from measles,' Becerra said. 'They should be alive today.'
Both NOTUS and The New York Times reported that at least nine citations found in the MAHA report so far were fake, and that it largely misrepresented the findings of other existing studies. Several experts have connected the errors to the use of artificial intelligence.
By the end of the day Thursday, the White House had updated the report and removed seven fake citations.
In the last few months, at least 20,000 people have left HHS, with half getting laid off and the other half taking buyouts. Many of the expelled staff were dedicated to monitoring pregnancy outcomes and preventing health crises like opioid addictions, gun injuries, and intimate partner violence.
Becerra slammed HHS for trying to 'muzzle' researchers and the 'folks that are underneath' Kennedy who are 'allowing this to happen.'
'As dangerous as the guy in the Oval Office is,' Becerra added, 'I think the big danger is those who enable him to do this, because that's how you end up with tyranny and dictatorship—when others follow and let it happen.'
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