Last week, Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz traveled to Washington, D.C. to represent the state for the release of what he called a “landmark report” from the “Make America Healthy Again” Commission. However, new reporting has found that several of the conclusions in that report relied on scientific evidence that does not exist.
Last week, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. unveiled "The MAHA Report: Make Our Children Healthy Again." According to the New York Times, "The document echoes talking points Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has championed for decades: the idea that our modern environment is making people sick, and that corporations exert too much influence on research and medicine."
A NOTUS analysis of the report's more than 500 citations revealed seven seemingly nonexistent studies.
Epidemiologist Katherine Keyes is listed in the MAHA report as the first author of a study on anxiety in adolescents. When NOTUS reached out to her this week, she was surprised to hear of the citation. She does study mental health and substance use, she said. But she didn’t write the paper listed.
“The paper cited is not a real paper that I or my colleagues were involved with,” Keyes told NOTUS via email. “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.”
It’s not clear that anyone wrote the study cited in the MAHA report. The citation refers to a study titled, “Changes in mental health and substance abuse among US adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic,” along with a nonfunctional link to the study’s digital object identifier. While the citation claims that the study appeared in the 12th issue of the 176th edition of the journal JAMA Pediatrics, that issue didn’t include a study with that title.
Several other researchers told NOTUS that they had never authored or worked on the articles bearing their names in the MAHA Commission report.
In one particularly puzzling example, the report cites an article linking the rise of ADHD medication use by children to increased advertising. That article does not appear in the journal where it was purportedly published, and the author doesn’t appear to be a real ADHD researcher.
Speaker Schultz and much of the Republican-controlled Utah Legislature have aggressively embraced Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s MAHA agenda. During the 2025 session, lawmakers ignored dental health experts and passed legislation making Utah the first state to ban fluoride in drinking water. Lawmakers also passed bills prohibiting food containing certain dyes and chemicals from being served in school lunches and preventing Utahns on food assistance from using those benefits to purchase soda.
Schultz traveled to Washington, D.C. last week for the release of the MAHA Commission report.
“I know firsthand how important it is to put our children first — and that starts with bold, proactive policies,” Schultz wrote on social media. “I’m excited to see this administration take major steps to Make America Healthy Again.”
Schultz did not respond to a request for comment about his support for the Commission’s report in light of the new reporting.
Also representing Utah was Rep. Kristen Chevrier, a GOP freshman legislator who sponsored the food dye and soda legislation. While Schultz has credited Chevrier as the driving force behind Utah's embrace of the MAHA movement, her background raises questions about her qualifications to lead this initiative.
Chevrier was elected by Republican delegates in a special election in December after then-Rep. Brady Brammer resigned his seat in the Utah House. Brammer’s resignation came after he was elected to succeed Mike Kennedy in the Utah Senate after Kennedy was elected to Congress.
Chevrier has no medical or healthcare background. Her bio on LinkedIn shows she earned a master’s degree from Brigham Young University in English Language and Literature. She is currently listed as one of the founders of Your Health Freedom, an organization whose purported mission is to “empower parents and individuals to make informed health decisions.”
Chevrier is also a longtime anti-vaccine activist. Along with Your Health Utah, she was behind the organization Vaccine Freedom Utah.
“Four years ago, Kristen began her ongoing research into vaccines, the immune system, and vaccine policy. What she’s learned has lit her soul on fire,” reads an archived copy of Chevrier’s bio on the website’s “About” page.
According to the Internet Archive, the Vaccine Freedom Utah webpage was still online until late last year, right before Chevrier decided to run for the Utah Legislature. Its URL now points to the Your Health Freedom homepage.
Last year, an event hosted by Your Health Freedom featured a keynote speech by Dr. Brian Hooker, who co-authored with Secretary Kennedy the 2023 book Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak. Among the debunked claims contained in that book is that MMR vaccines cause autism. In 2021, the group hosted Dr. Peter McCullough, an anti-vaccine activist who has promoted ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.
A spokesperson for the Utah House of Representatives says Rep. Chevrier was invited to take part in the Washington, D.C. event by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
