Events

Guest Speaker: Professor Emilie Cloatre, King's College London

Title: 'Between Deception and Dissent: Regulating Unproven, Disproven and Misleading Health-Related Claims'

Abstract: Contemporary states seem increasingly preoccupied with health misinformation. Against a backdrop of widespread distrust among many communities towards both scientific and state institutions, questionable claims have indeed disrupted official advice and health strategies – maybe most strikingly during the Covid crisis. Yet how states could or should respond to unproven claims in health remains unclear. The limited knowledge we have of state responses to date suggest a landscape marked by complexity, messiness and ambivalence.

In this paper, I will outline some of the key questions – and initial insights – from our collaborative Wellcome project, that aims to explore how specific states in Europe (France, Greece, Ireland and the UK), North America (Canada and Mexico) and West Africa (Ghana and Senegal) regulate contested health-claims. Drawing on examples from our initial research, I will explore the socio-legal questions raised by the diverse (and sometimes inconsistent) regulatory responses triggered by such claims, and how communities respond to, resist, or engage with relevant legal rules. I will conclude by sketching the ways in which we propose to approach these questions, both across jurisdictions, and across contrasting areas of healthcare.