Abstract
Journalism always requires ethics and responsibility from those who practice it, and science journalism is no exception. However, health journalism is a particularly delicate field within the profession: alarmist, sensationalist, or less rigorous communication from other areas of science can lead the reader to misunderstand the Higgs boson or, at most, believe that a meteorite could impact Earth. In the case of health, there is a danger of creating confusion, alarm, false hopes, and over-expectations on such delicate and personal matters as cancer and Alzheimer's, or matters of public health importance such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, one of the most important and challenging tasks of the science journalist in urgent contexts is, paradoxically, not to publish. In other words, deciding which information, preprints, studies, reports, press releases, and even debates deserve to reach the public opinion and which ones do not.
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