The COVID-19 pandemic of the early 2020s marked a significant interruption into normal life for billions of people around the world, and cost millions of lives. Its impacts are still unfolding as I write, and touch everything from national economies to long-term healthcare needs and community cohesion. But the pandemic is also illustrative in multiple ways of the themes discussed in this book. For months and years technoscientific research became highly visible, as governments referred to scientific advice to justify their decisions and as researchers explained their work in the media. As public audiences, we watched ‘science in the making’ – unfinished, uncertain science – as scientists sought to make sense of the situation, offer the best advice possible, and develop vaccines and medical treatments. Given the emphasis on stable and uncontroversial knowledge within much science communication, the pandemic was an almost unprecedented moment in which the uncertain, incremental nature of scientific research became public. At the same time some researchers – like virologist Christian Drosten in Germany or epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim in South Africa – became household names, shooting to a level of visibility no one would have anticipated.

The story of one such researcher is particularly pertinent to the topics I will discuss in this chapter. Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson was a key figure in the UK government's pandemic response, a modeller whose work helped make the case for stringent lockdowns and physical distancing. But in early May 2020 he abruptly resigned from his government advisory role after newspaper reports that, during a period in which those in separate households were forbidden from intermingling, he had been visited twice by his married lover (or, as one report had it, ‘trysting’). ‘I accept I made an error of judgement and took the wrong course of action’, Professor Ferguson said in a statement. ‘I have therefore stepped back from my involvement in Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies).

Why did Ferguson feel the need to resign? Perhaps it's not a question that needs asking – after all, his choice was treated as obvious at the time, with the UK health minister saying that it was the ‘right decision’ and that it was ‘not possible’ for him to continue in his expert advisory role.