What are the Three Deadly Flaws in Trump Science Revealed by the MAHA Report?

Hint: The Problem is Not AI

(Note: an early version stated incorrectly that RFK Jr. had an autistic child. That was incorrect. My apologies.)

As it becomes clear that the MAHA Report, Make Our Children Healthy Again, is little more than an AI hack job, we need to raise the larger question. Why did they need AI? There are three reasons and none reflects well on the scientific leadership of the Trump regime. The first is its conclusion-first approach to science, which demonstrates their complete disdain for science and the scientific process, the second is the pseudo-science with which they replace that process, and the third is the pseudo-scientists responsible for it. Consider these in reverse order in the context of MAHA.

The Pseudo-scientists

The core problem with the MAHA report becomes clear before one even gets to the content or the goofy references. This purports to be a report on the health of America’s children, touching on everything from their diets and obesity to their psychological well-being, the incidence of autism, their exposure to environmental hazards, food allergies, and childhood cancer. With that in mind, any serious commission would include pediatricians, psychologists, neurologists, toxicologists, and epidemiologists. No one on the Commission has expertise in any of these fields.

Instead, RFK Jr. has pulled together the following:

• 4 lawyers (including Kennedy)

• 3 economists (A reader has complained that I didn’t acknowledge that one of these economists is also an MD. Jay Bhattacharya is, indeed a physician. He never practiced or completed a residency and is not an expert in any of the areas mentioned above, as evidenced by his role in one of the worst epidemiological studies of the entire pandemic.)

• Linda McMahon (the CEO of Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment)

• Russell Vought (the architect of Project 2025)

• Stephen Miller (yes, that Stephen Miller)

• Three lieutenants in the Trump regime with non-science Batchelor’s degrees including, a protege of Peter Thiel, a former NFL player, and the Secretary of Agriculture.

• A GI surgeon (the only practicing physician) and Fox News Commentator

The list speaks for itself. They needed AI.

The result is a hodgepodge of misinformation that reads like conclusions in search of science. They seem to view references as something you tack on after you have stated your version of reality.

The Pseudo-science

The report leads off with a graph on the bizarrely high cost of health care and lower life expectancy in the US, suggesting that this reflects childhood chronic diseases. No mention is made of the fact that every other country in the graph has universal health insurance. In fact the only reference to insurance in the entire report refers to federal crop insurance. Appropriate, I suppose, for a report based on cherry picking facts. It goes downhill from there.

The report draws heavily on discredited documents from organizations associated with RFK Jr. and is riddled with flaws including evidence of use of AI to generate the report, the inclusion of non-existent, AI-generated references, and the generation of other non-existent references when they tried to fix it.

Rather than pick this AI drivel apart, I wanted to see if I could recreate it. As it turns out, even AI chokes when one tries to get it to generate the quasi-medical nonsense in the MAHA report. The problem they encountered involves the logic of AI and the fact that it is, well … logical.

Using Chat GPT, I first tried to create a summary of the purported epidemic that was the focus of the MAHA report.

Prompt 1: Write a piece about the alarming rise of chronic diseases in children. Include footnotes with references.

The prevalence of chronic diseases among children has surged in recent decades, raising significant concerns for public health. Conditions such as asthma, obesity, diabetes, and mental health disorders are increasingly common, affecting millions of children in the United States and globally.New York Post

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📈 Rising Prevalence of Pediatric Chronic Conditions

Between 1999 and 2018, the proportion of U.S. children aged 5 to 17 diagnosed with at least one chronic condition or functional limitation increased from approximately 23% to over 30%, equating to about 130,000 additional children each year. Asthma and mental health conditions were among the primary contributors to this rise. Academic Pediatrics+2UCLA Health+2PubMed+2PubMed

In adolescents aged 12 to 19, nearly 9% are affected by metabolic syndrome—a cluster of conditions including obesity, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance—which significantly elevates the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes in adulthood. Wikipedia

Furthermore, a study in Australia found that 45.6% of teenagers are affected by chronic or developmental health conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, eczema, asthma, ADHD, and autism spectrum disorder. couriermail

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🧠 Mental Health and Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Mental health issues among children have also escalated. Between 2016 and 2020, there were significant increases in children's diagnosed anxiety and depression, alongside decreases in physical activity. Additionally, rates of autism spectrum disorder have risen, with the CDC reporting that 1 in 36 children were diagnosed as of 2023. JAMA Network

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⚠️ Contributing Factors

Several factors contribute to the rise in chronic diseases among children:

· Diet and Nutrition: Increased consumption of ultra-processed foods and sugary beverages has been linked to obesity and related metabolic disorders. couriermail

· Physical Inactivity: Sedentary lifestyles, often due to excessive screen time, contribute to obesity and other health issues.

· Environmental Exposures: Exposure to environmental chemicals, such as pesticides and microplastics, may play a role in the development of chronic conditions. New York Post

· Socioeconomic Factors: Children from lower-income families are more likely to experience chronic health conditions due to factors like limited access to healthcare and nutritious foods. UCLA Health

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🏥 Implications and the Need for Action

The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases in children has profound implications:

· Healthcare System Strain: Managing chronic conditions requires ongoing medical care, placing a burden on healthcare systems.PubMed

· Long-Term Health Outcomes: Children with chronic diseases are at higher risk for continued health issues into adulthood, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

· Economic Impact: Chronic diseases contribute to increased healthcare costs and can affect families' financial stability.

Addressing this crisis necessitates a multifaceted approach, including public health initiatives promoting healthy lifestyles, policies to reduce environmental exposures, and efforts to address socioeconomic disparities.

📚 Bibliography

1. UCLA Health. (2024). Pediatric chronic disease prevalence has risen nearly 30%. Retrieved from: https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/pediatric-chronic-disease-prevalence-has-risen-nearly-30

2. Lebrun-Harris, L. A., & Kelleher, K. (2024). Trends in chronic conditions among children in the U.S., 1999–2018. JAMA Pediatrics. Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40058728

3. Wikipedia contributors. (2023). Epidemiology of metabolic syndrome. Wikipedia. Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_metabolic_syndrome

4. Le Grand, C. (2024, May 18). Silent epidemic exposed with fears for next generation. The Courier-Mail. Retrieved from: https://www.couriermail.com.au/health/conditions/silent-epidemic-exposed-with-fears-for-next-generation/news-story/eb77e983593e5b537c35fa6e63dcf040

5. Lebrun-Harris, L. A., Ghandour, R. M., & Kogan, M. D. (2022). Trends in Anxiety and Depression Among US Children, 2016–2020. JAMA Pediatrics, 176(5), e215130. Retrieved from: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2789946

6. Documenting Hope. (2023). The Startling Statistics: Chronic Illness in Children. Retrieved from: https://documentinghope.com/the-startling-statistics

7. Crane, E. (2025, May 22). RFK Jr. lists 4 potential causes of childhood chronic disease: report. New York Post. Retrieved from: https://nypost.com/2025/05/22/us-news/rfk-jr-lists-4-potential-causes-of-childhood-chronic-disease-report.

The AI is less impressed by this “chronic disease epidemic” than the MAHA commission and focuses on a few issues for which there is real evidence such as increases in asthma, allergies, obesity, depression and anxiety.

The references are particularly interesting. They include:

o An article about the MAHA report in the New York Post.

o A page on an alternative health organization devoted to the supposed epidemic.

o A Wikipedia page on metabolic syndrome.

o An article from an Australian newspaper article about a paper on high rates of chronic diseases in which the most common “chronic disease” was hay fever

o A summary of a scientific paper from UCLA Health.

o Two scientific papers:

• Lebrun-Harris, L. A., & Kelleher, K. (2024). Trends in chronic conditions among children in the U.S., 1999–2018. JAMA Pediatrics. Retrieved from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40058728

• Lebrun-Harris, L. A., Ghandour, R. M., & Kogan, M. D. (2022). Trends in Anxiety and Depression Among US Children, 2016–2020. JAMA Pediatrics, 176(5), e215130. Retrieved from: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2789946

The fact that it appears to be giving the same reference twice isn’t even the strangest part. In fact, neither one is an actual paper. The link provided with the first paper listed takes you here:

• Wisk, Lauren E., and Niraj Sharma. “Prevalence and Trends in Pediatric-Onset Chronic Conditions in the United States, 1999-2018.” Academic Pediatrics 25, no. 4 (2025): 102810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2025.102810.

This paper is the paper actually referred to in the UCLA article, which notes that “asthma and mental/behavioral health conditions” are the primary concerns for children.

The link provided with the second article takes you to a paper that is similar to that listed in the two citations except it has a different title and author list.

• Lebrun-Harris, Lydie A., Reem M. Ghandour, Michael D. Kogan, and Michael D. Warren. “Five-Year Trends in US Children’s Health and Well-Being, 2016-2020.” JAMA Pediatrics 176, no. 7 (July 1, 2022): e220056. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.0056.

It is notable that this paper is not about a chronic disease epidemic in children at all. As stated in the paper, its underlying research question is: “What are the recent trends in children’s health, including significant changes that might be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic?”

In other words, AI struggled with this assignment. It repeatedly cited non-scientific sources and garbled the two references it did find. This suggests the zone has been flooded with contradictory information, some of it coming from a source that is normally reliable, which is the federal government.

What about Autism and vaccines?

One of the most notable things about the MAHA report is what is not there, which is RFK Jr’s favorite topic, the supposed link between vaccines and the rise in autism. With that in mind, I tried a second prompt:

Prompt 2: Write about the reasons for the rise in autism over the past fifty years and the role of vaccines in that rise

📈 Understanding the Rise in Autism Over the Past Fifty Years

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased markedly over the past five decades. In the 1970s, autism was estimated to affect about 1 in 5,000 children. By the early 2000s, this figure had risen to 1 in 150, and as of 2023, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports prevalence at 1 in 36 children¹. This dramatic rise has prompted extensive research and debate regarding its underlying causes.

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🧠 Multiple Factors Contributing to Increased Autism Diagnoses

Researchers generally attribute the rise in autism prevalence to a combination of factors:

1. Expanded Diagnostic Criteria
The definition of autism has broadened significantly since the publication of the DSM-III in 1980. The inclusion of a spectrum (ranging from profound disability to high-functioning individuals) has allowed more children to be diagnosed under the ASD umbrella².

2. Greater Awareness and Screening
Increased public and professional awareness has led to earlier and more frequent screening for developmental delays, especially in young children³.

3. Diagnostic Substitution
Some of the rise may reflect diagnostic substitution—children who might previously have been classified as intellectually disabled or having a language disorder are now diagnosed with autism⁴.

4. Environmental and Epigenetic Factors
Beyond diagnostic changes, researchers have explored potential environmental influences such as prenatal exposure to air pollution, pesticides, maternal infections, and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. These exposures may act alone or interact with genetic predispositions to increase autism risk⁵.

…..

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🧬 Summary

The rise in autism diagnoses over the past fifty years is primarily attributable to broader diagnostic criteria, increased awareness, and improved surveillance. Environmental exposures are being investigated as contributing factors, but vaccines are not supported by the scientific literature as a cause of autism. Continued vigilance in vaccine safety monitoring is essential, but so is countering misinformation that undermines public health.

Note that the bold font is not my doing. This is exactly what I got from AI along with a list of actual scientific papers.

Finally, I tried to force the issue:

Prompt 3: Please provide a list of references to support the assertion that vaccines are responsible for the rise in autism in the US over the past 50 years.

There is no credible scientific evidence to support the assertion that vaccines are responsible for the rise in autism in the U.S. over the past 50 years. This claim has been extensively investigated and repeatedly refuted by large-scale epidemiological studies, meta-analyses, and expert reviews across multiple countries.

Key References Refuting the Vaccine-Autism Link

1. Taylor LE, Swerdfeger AL, Eslick GD.
Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies.
Vaccine. 2014 Jun 17;32(29):3623–3629.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.04.085

This meta-analysis of over 1.2 million children found no relationship between vaccination and autism or autism spectrum disorders (ASDs).

2. DeStefano F, Bhasin TK, Thompson WW, Yeargin-Allsopp M, Boyle C.
Age at first measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in children with autism and school-matched control subjects: a population-based study in metropolitan Atlanta.
Pediatrics. 2004 Feb;113(2):259–266.
https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.113.2.259

No association was found between the age of MMR vaccination and autism diagnosis.

3. Uno Y, Uchiyama T, Kurosawa M, Aleksic B, Ozaki N.
The combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines and the total number of vaccines are not associated with development of autism spectrum disorder: the first case-control study in Asia.
Vaccine. 2015 Jun 26;33(30):3483–3489.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2015.05.095

Confirmed lack of correlation between MMR and ASD in Japanese children.

4. Madsen KM, et al.
A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism.
New England Journal of Medicine. 2002 Nov 7;347(19):1477–1482.
https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa021134

A large Danish cohort study found no increased risk of autism with MMR vaccination.

5. Hviid A, Hansen JV, Frisch M, Melbye M.
Measles, mumps, rubella vaccination and autism: a nationwide cohort study.
Ann Intern Med. 2019 Mar 5;170(8):513–520.
https://doi.org/10.7326/M18-2101

In a cohort of over 650,000 children in Denmark, MMR vaccination did not increase autism risk in any subgroup.

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Notes on the Origin of the Vaccine-Autism Claim

· The claim largely originates from a 1998 paper by Andrew Wakefield, published in The Lancet, which suggested a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The paper was later retracted for ethical violations and scientific fraud:

o The Lancet. Retraction—Ileal-lymphoid-nodular hyperplasia, non-specific colitis, and pervasive developmental disorder in children. 2010;375(9713):445.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(10)60175-4

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Conclusion

The scientific consensus, based on dozens of high-quality studies across various populations, is that vaccines do not cause autism. The increase in autism diagnoses over the past 50 years is better explained by changes in diagnostic criteria, increased awareness, and broader definitions of autism spectrum disorders.

If you're looking for perspectives that argue otherwise, they generally come from fringe sources that lack methodological rigor and have not withstood scientific scrutiny. Let me know if you'd like help evaluating any specific claims or studies.

Bottom Line:

· A Commission with none of the necessary expertise tried to make a case about the horrible state of children’s health.

· When asked to document the supposed epidemic of chronic diseases in children, Chat GPT garbled the references, suggesting it is hard to document. (It had no problem documenting the evidence AGAINST a role of vaccines in autism.)

· There are actual issues worth considering related to children’s health, primarily related to obesity, sedentary lifestyles, anxiety, and depression.

· When it comes to issues like autism and the adverse effects of vaccines the Commission found that the AI was a bit too intelligent and insufficiently artificial. Chat GPT was emphatic and well documented in its arguments against RFK Jr’s obsession.

This is exactly what happens when you start with a conclusion and look for the science to support it. There is a blend of real issues such as rising childhood obesity and increased rates of anxiety for which RFK Jr. presumes to know the cause and issues he completely misunderstands, such as the rise in autism, and has attached causes based on simplistic takes on science around issues such as mercury toxicity.

This fits perfectly in a regime willfully untethered from truth and reality. In this parallel universe, science and AI must bend to the version of truth handed down by the Empire of Lies. And there’s the problem. Science is a process. A systematic, relentless search for the truth. When it is forced to support a conclusion, it is no longer science.

AI also seeks consistent logic. False versions of reality are, by their nature, inconsistent. When caught in the tangled web of fabrication put out by Kennedy or Trump, it breaks.

The war on science is apparently over in this regime. Science lost.