Overnight reading shortens life. Video games provoke massacres. Soda makes people aggressive. A what?! No! Every day the media write about sensational discoveries and shocking research results. But not all of them can be trusted: statistical errors, deliberate falsifications and non-obvious flaws have not been canceled. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, humanity was forced to take a crash course in statistics: now we are well versed in graphs, have heard something about normal distribution and are familiar with the survivor's mistake. But we still have a lot to learn: How do mathematical models work? What is the difference between absolute and relative risks? What are the ratings talking about? What is the Texas shooter bug? Science journalist Tom Chivers and lecturer in economics at Durham University David Chivers show how to prevent yourself from being deceived by numbers using examples of loud headlines of covid time.