Beginning his keynote speech, Sir Chris offered some reassurance for his audience highlighting ‘the British public are actually extraordinarily sensible on almost all of these topics'.

Sir Chris said vaccination rates of over 90% proved that vaccine sceptics were wrong when they claimed they spoke for half the population.

While putting the scale of the problem in perspective, the chief medical officer also acknowledged mis- and disinformation was, nonetheless, ‘in some cases really problematic' and can ‘prevent incredibly powerful tools of medicine, either preventative or curative, from being used'.

Sir Chris then looked at why people spread mis- and disinformation. First and foremost he said it was done for financial gain, whether by whole industries such as tobacco, for personal gain through their own business model, or for publicity or profile purposes.

Secondly, he cited people who were trying to discredit their rivals and thirdly, those who genuinely believe what they are saying and distrust elites.

Finally, Sir Chris said some people were simply just ‘vain' and seeking the easiest way to gain attention.

Why does it land?

Next, the Government advisor looked at why people could be receptive to mis- and disinformation.

This could be those who are simply wanting the best for themselves and their family and then there are the conspiracy theorists.

Sir Chris observed the latter were almost impossible to persuade as every contradiction simply fuelled their theory of out of touch elites.

‘Trying to change the mind of someone who's in a conspiracy theory is a completely pointless activity, Sir Chris reflected.

Turning to people with genuine concerns, however, the advisor noted the importance of addressing their concerns ‘legitimately, fairly honestly' and with ‘technically accurate information'.

Sir Chris said these people generally had four questions where if the answer is ‘no' they would stop listening: Is the disease serious to worry about? Does the vaccine or treatment work? Are the downsides of side effects significantly smaller than the risks of the disease? Is it easy to get access to the vaccination?

Legitimising the sceptics

Sir Chris cautioned healthcare leaders to be wary of entering debates with conspiracy theorists as this risked granted them more oxygen and respectability as they are seen on a par with accepted experts.

He added there was more respect, however, for the medical profession than Government leaving it in a better place to argue the rational case.

He noted there were minority sections of the population that could only be reached through people in their own community that they trust.

Sir Chris highlighted the key role of Somali doctors and nurses played in reaching out to their community during Covid.

Finally, he stressed the importance of not attributing falls in vaccination rates to disinformation when a far greater factor was likely to be people finding them difficult to get.

‘We need to look at ourselves and make sure we have done our job before we start blaming others for the fact that very often things are coming down,' he concluded.