When it comes to health information and misinformation, it seems we live – to adopt the wording of the Chinese curse – in interesting times. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has set new precedents.

Public insight into the origin of the virus, the millions of people affected, the severity of illness, the likely pathology, the potential treatments and, of course, the safety and efficacy profiles of the emerging vaccines has been filtered through the mass media, both in its traditional and social forms.

Though much of the population had never heard the term ‘epidemiologist’ before 2020, we have seen the emergence of the ‘armchair’ epidemiologists.