On air in ten minutes

What?

On the evening of 6 April 2020, the news broke that the Prime Minister had been admitted to intensive care with COVID-19. I got the call for one reason: my Apple Watch rang, and I ran inside. I had just finished a thirty-minute Facebook Live to the public on WatMed Media, and while I was giving that talk I could never have guessed that ten minutes after ending it I would be on air with Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News. The producer’s words were simple: we have ten minutes of airtime to fill, we trust you, go.

So what?

The preparation calmed the nerves, but so did being immersed in the subject, wanting to cover it in depth, to do it justice, and to bring the members of the public watching along without scaring them. That, it seems to me, is the complete antithesis of what so many social media influencers do today, capitalising on platforms monetised for shock and awe and attention grabbing, fuelling medical misinformation and helping to make it a serious global public health threat.

Now what?

It is part of why I went on to co-found the Undoctored Truths Alliance, a voluntary initiative to connect professionals and the public and to equip them with the tools to inoculate themselves against the vast volumes of dubious health content online, so much of it not evidence based in the slightest and often tied to commercial gain through the parasocial relationships influencers form with their followers. Looking back on that day just over six years later, on 11 July 2026, the day Dermot Murnaghan sadly passed away, I keep returning to his calm, communicative style in the seconds before we went on air, and how assured his non-verbal communication was down the line. It was a joy, and I am grateful to have worked, however briefly, with such a broadcasting great.