I am thrilled to be starting this exciting project, and to be working with such an incredible team of interdisciplinary scholars. The question of how regulators apprehend controversial health claims, with what assumptions and to what effects, has maybe never been more pressing, and we are grateful to Wellcome for supporting us in exploring it in depth, and across such diverse local contexts.
Professor Emilie Cloatre, Professor of Medical Law
07 July 2025
New research project launched to explore how unproven, disproven and misleading health-related claims are regulated
Led by Professor Emilie Cloatre, the £5m interdisciplinary Wellcome Discovery Award will explore critically how unproven, disproven, or misleading health-related claims are regulated in contemporary states.
‘Misinformation’, we are often told, is everywhere. In recent years, there has been significant policy attention to regulation of unproven, disproven or misleading health- claims, and their potentially harmful effects. Concerns span areas as diverse as mental health, reproductive health, weight loss and life-threatening diseases. Controversial claims can originate from a range of groups and individuals, including social media influencers, the wellness industry, religious lobbies or political figures.
But not all unproven, disproven or misleading claims are deemed equally problematic. Governments and others make a range of decisions about which types of claims are tolerable, and which are deemed so harmful or problematic that they require intervention. Yet, we know very little about how and why these decisions are made, nor about the ways in which they are implemented.
These questions are at the core of an ambitious 6-year project, “Between Deception and Dissent”, led by Professor Emilie Cloatre and an interdisciplinary team across eight countries. The project will focus on a series of case studies in Europe (France, Greece, Ireland and the UK), West Africa (Ghana and Senegal) and North America (Canada and Mexico). It will seek to understand regulatory interventions and how they intersect with politics and society.
The project will produce a critical, cross-cutting and cross-national analysis, paying particular attention to the injustices, vulnerabilities, and harms that are sometimes overlooked. The team will focus on contested psychological practices and practitioners; misleading claims in sexual and reproductive health; outbreaks, epidemics, and managing (mis)information in times of crisis; faith healing and miracle cures; and the legal boundaries of wellness and healthy living advice.
Alongside the substantive research, the project will include a series of activities that aim to support the growth of a global community of scholars undertaking critical research on health, law and society. A project launch event will be held in London on 30 September.
Find out more about the project, team and forthcoming events on the project website.
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Professor of Medical Law