RFK Jr and the clock that strikes 13

One of my favorite aphorisms, for which I haven’t located the source, is: “There’s something about the sound of a clock striking 13 that calls into doubt everything that came before.”

That came to mind when I read about RFK Jr’s “Make America Healthy Again” report:

“ The Washington Post reported, “Some of the report’s suggestions ... stretched the limits of science, medical experts said. Several sections of the report offer misleading representations of findings in scientific papers.”

 

“That was last week. This week, NOTUS advanced these concerns, reporting that the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” report “misinterprets some studies and cites others that don’t exist, according to the listed authors.”

“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. ... NOTUS also found serious issues with how the report interpreted some of the existing studies it cites.

“For example, the administration’s document listed epidemiologist Katherine Keyes as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents — except she didn’t write it.

 

“The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” Keyes told NOTUS. 

 

“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.”

There are already plenty of reasons to distrust or ignore RFK Jr, so I can say I’m surprised by this latest howler. It certainly doesn’t inspire confidence, any more than that clock.

 

I read elsewhere that RFK Jr is blaming “formatting errors.” If RFK Jr were my student, he’d get an F.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-administrations-maha-report-cites-nonexistent-scientific-studies-rcna209732

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