On Christmas, last year, South Africa’s less-than festive health minister fired a broadside at his UK counterpart after Matt Hancock claimed that the COVID-19 variant discovered in South Africa was ‘spreading quicker than other strains.’

The researchers behind the study warned that the findings should be viewed with caution, not only because the paper is yet to be peer-reviewed, but also because the engineered virus they relied upon did not include a full set of the spike mutations found in either the UK or South African viral strains.