Decisions about how we should behave at Christmas are heavily influenced by the media – from online Twitter threads and infographics to interviews with scientists and public health officials. As a result of the pandemic, certain scientists and journalists have themselves become well-known characters in the Covid story – but is it a role they welcome?

Guests: Professor Neil Ferguson, epidemiologist and member of SAGE; Professor Christina Pagel, Director of UCL’s Clinical Operational Research Unit; Dr Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the World Health Organisation; John Burn-Murdoch, chief data reporter at Financial Times. Producer: Dan Hardoon

Presenter: Ros Atkins

Studio engineer: Bob Nettles

Editor: Richard Hooper