Health Communication Science in the Balance

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.