We shouldn’t underestimate the risk of new variants. Indeed B.1.1.7 changed the course of the pandemic in the UK and has spread across the world.

But the overblown media coverage, premature claims of vaccine escape and ridiculous use of terms such as “double mutant” has to stop.

Never before has a virus been so well monitored in real-time, and our genomic surveillance capability is second to none. But it feels like this has led to a paranoia and sense of impending doom that a new variant will inevitably emerge that will set us back to square one.

None of the variants of concern have been able to get much of a foothold yet in the UK against B.1.1.7.

Meanwhile the vaccine rollout is progressing superbly well and we will have boosters in the autumn (for vulnerable groups at least) that should be able to handle new variants.

In my humble opinion the general public should worry less about what *might* happen, and try to ignore sensationalist and alarmist individuals and newspapers.

We should be vigilant, but reassured that we’re monitoring everything closely, and the roadmap remains firmly on track.