For much of the past year the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had an enormous impact on the lives of individuals and communities around the world. The aims of the current study was to investigate (I) 10 to 12-year-old Swedish pupils´ views on how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic influences their interests and understanding regarding contagion literacy (CL), and (II) from what source (biology education or informal settings) they perceive that their knowledge originates from. The study is based on the framework of CL that was defined as the health literacy required in daily life and that recommends what should be taught at compulsory schools. The framework specifies six content themes, of which four are used in the current study to outline middle school pupils´ comprehension. Data is collected by individual, semi-structured interviews with pupils´ at schools located in various socio-economic areas. The interviews were transcribed and analysed thematically. Preliminary results showed that pupils´ perceive the ongoing pandemic to prompt many student-initiated questions and is creating more interactive and interesting learning situations. Most pupils say they have no experience CL from their formal biology teaching and that their knowledge derives mostly from sources outside school, such as news programs for children. To conclude, the interviewed Swedish middle school pupils´ understanding of CL seems mainly to originate from informal domains, rather than from formal biology education. Hence, the results indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic spark interest among pupils for the topic and that there is a potential for exploiting this interest in developing biology education at this school level.