<p>Whether in discussions about vaccination sceptics, climate change deniers, creationists or covid sceptics—the literature on scientific scepticism emphasizes the societal dangers of an ideological rejection of facts. This article takes a&#xa0;different perspective by analysing the attribution process of scientific scepticism by actors in science and the media based on four episodes of the Covid-19 pandemic (pandemic origin, disease severity, pandemic strategy and vaccination). On the one hand, scientific scepticism is examined emically as an actor category that marks people and positions as ‘sceptical’. On the other hand, it is used etically as an analytical category and reflected back to the actor level. The analysis reveals that, first, constellations of positions and actors are marked as science-sceptical, which, from an etic perspective, appear to be part of the scientific community. Second, it can be seen that the positions and actors marked as science-sceptical are united by their critical, but scientifically justifiable stance on pandemic policy. Third, it can be seen that marking of these actors and positions as scientifically sceptical excluded less restrictive options for pandemic governance.</p>