The article is devoted to the problems of qualification of crimes prescribed by Articles 201.1 and 207.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The article analyzes the practice of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, aimed at clarifying the new provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as well as requirements for their practical implementation. Purpose: to identify the advantages and disadvantages of criminal-legal regulation of disseminating knowingly false information that poses a danger to the life or health of people and their safety in the pandemic. Methods: the study of the relevant norms using the systemic method, general scientific methods (structural-functional analysis, comparison, logical method, and content analysis of the practice of courts). Main results: the study made it possible to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the norms providing for criminal liability for the public dissemination of knowingly false information regarding the circumstances that pose a threat to the life and safety of citizens and the public dissemination of knowingly false socially significant information, which entailed grave consequences, as well as separate qualification errors in judicial and investigative practice that arose at the initial stage of their implementation. Conclusions and substantiation of the novelty of the work: the insufficient effectiveness of the existing approach to the problems of legal assessment of crimes is substantiated, which provides for responsibility for the public dissemination of knowingly false information regarding the circumstances that pose a threat to the life and safety of citizens and the public dissemination of knowingly false socially significant information, which entailed grave consequences, and the ways of solving the specified problems are proposed. At the same time, it is noted that the changes in legislation, especially such as criminal one, should be the result of targeted criminological analysis, with an appropriate criminological (and not spontaneous action – reflection on what is happening) forecast of the situation development. The authors highlight the unprecedented character of the measures taken by the state and the need to cancel them when external factors change, which provoked the changes in the criminal-legal regulation of public relations.