The Mail on Sunday appears to have been the first newspaper to get reporters undercover at a swine flu call centre.

Helen Dowd and Ross Slater discovered a David Brent-style character at the Teleperformance call centre in Leicestershire who said: “Swine flu is the turboshandy of bugs” and “We should make someone with it run around Bristol”.

The MoS also revealed that a 16-year-old school-leaver was among those charged with fielding health queries from members of the public.