When I started tweeting about Covid in March 2020, all I did was post graphs showing forecasts. Some turned out to be wrong. Forecasting is tricky. Forecasting nonlinear complex phenomena is even harder.
I also posted the results of fancy calculations attempting to estimate R (aka ‘the R-number’). Others posted their own results. Governments did so too. None of us agreed down to the tiniest decimal. Some agreed, but broadly.
Within a few weeks I was being called a Covid-denier.
I half-expected my Twitter account to be banned. It wasn’t.
That’s great, because social media is chock full of fake news that passes for authoritative information. I’m not just talking about this: https://twitter.com/FlatEarthOrg . Or even this: https://www.facebook.com/ancientaliens . There’s a lot of this too: https://www.facebook.com/MedievalHistoryLovers (“mysterious, brutal and spiritual'“?). And this: