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Covering covid-19: stories from The BMJ’s news desk

The covid-19 pandemic has been the biggest public health crisis of a generation. The avalanche of media around the disease-19 has been dubbed an “infodemic.” Anyone can turn on their smartphone and access more information on the covid-19 outbreak than they could consume in a lifetime. Although other groups of essential workers hit headlines, it might be easy to forget the group of key workers who put them there—the journalists and editors who produce the media we consume. BMJ Student spoke to The BMJ ’s news and features team to hear about their experiences of covering covid-19.

“It’s been frantic,” says Rebecca Coombes, head of the news and views section of The BMJ . Coombes leads The BMJ ’s small in-house team of staff writers, as well as a network of freelance journalists. “I’ve been a health journalist for 25 years and have covered some of the biggest stories—such as the MMR [measles, mumps and rubella] scandal—and this is just beyond any of that,” she continues.

For The BMJ , says Coombes, it’s been important to continue as normal as much as possible. “ The BMJ is a legacy title,” she says. “It’s been in continual publication since the 1840s—it continued being published even when we [the BMJ office at BMA House in Euston, London] took nearly a direct hit from one of the 7/7 bombers. There’s a real pride in keeping the show on the road.” Unsurprisingly, The BMJ has been busier than ever …