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Abstract
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In June 2023, on the eve of the release of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Common Fund's transformational and unprecedented $154 million research program, Advancing Health Communication Science and Practice, the acting director of the NIH announced that this new program was to be "paused." The official rationale offered to justify this decision was the need to "reconsider its scope and aims in the context of the current regulatory and legal landscape around communication platforms." The NIH's unfortunate decision to halt the program, which took place in the face of mounting political pressures related to the study of misinformation, represents a serious threat to the integrity of science and to it successful translation.
This has happened at a time when the communication ecosystem for science and health information has become increasingly contaminated, noxious, and politicized,1 a development that has significantly undermined public health and caused harm to millions of individuals across the US.2 More than ever, the scientific community needs to harness all its resources and develop novel collaborations to advance the nascent field of health communication science and ensure that the majority of Americans have access to credible, persuasive, and actionable lifesaving evidence to inform their daily decisions.
Exposure to misinformation and disinformation has become ubiquitous and consequential. A 2021 survey found that more than three-quarters of US adults either believed or weren't sure about at least 1 of 8 false statements about the COVID-19 pandemic or COVID-19 vaccines.3 It has been estimated that between 178 000 and 331 800 COVID-19 deaths could have been prevented from January 2021-April 2022 if the uptake of vaccines had been optimized,4 a gap due in large part to disinformation. It is not just COVID-19 that is the subject of disinformation campaigns. US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, has calculated that misinformation contributes to life expectancy in the US being between 3 and 5 years lower than in other high-income countries. Misinformation campaigns, increasingly fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, extend beyond COVID-19, contaminating the communication environments involving a range of conditions, including cancer, noncommunicable diseases, disaster response, climate science, reproductive health, illicit drugs and smoking, vaccines, autoimmune diseases, and prescription drugs.5
In 2021, in response to this crisis in communication and in a defining moment for public health, the NIH allowed an innovative, timely proposal for a new NIH Common Fund Initiative to work its way through the complex and prolonged gauntlet required to turn a Common Fund concept into a funded program. If approved, this program would represent an unprecedented commitment to the previously understudied, undervalued, and underresourced field of health communication science. As a sign of the NIH's broad support, 3 institutes and centers (ICs) championed the program and 17 additional ICs signed on to this initiative...
Language: en |