Journalists’ frequent lack of confidence to engage with numbers is particularly worrying in a time of pandemic and climate crisis. When journalists do not engage sufficiently deeply with the data reported by scientists and politicians, they are unable to ask the really difficult questions about the rationale behind policy announcements that sometimes appear random. Even more worryingly, they are unable to hold politicians sufficiently to account for policies that are potentially damaging to specific groups — the elderly, women, minority groups, single mothers, teenagers or others.
