[9] In 2017, Japanese doctor and journalist Riko Muranaka won the John Maddox Prize for her work countering misinformation about the HPV vaccine with science and evidence, despite hostility including legal suits.
Marine biologist Terry Hughes was also awarded the John Maddox Prize for his work documenting coral reef decline despite lawsuits and death threats.
The early career prize was awarded to Olivier Bernard, a pharmacist from Quebec, Canada who became the target of a smear campaign for challenging the use of high-dose vitamin C injections in cancer patients.
Anne Abbott, a neurologist from the Central Clinical School at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia was awarded the early career prize for her perseverance in challenging unnecessary procedural treatment of carotid stenosis, which can lead to strokes.
[17] The early career prize went to American epidemiologist Chelsea Polis, a specialist in sexual and reproductive health issues, for challenging false claims in the marketing of a fertility tracking device, overcoming a lawsuit from the manufacturer.