The World Health Organization has revealed that it has placed a new Covid-19 strain first discovered in Russia on its online list of variants for monitoring. It joins a selection of eleven other unnamed coronavirus mutations. The strain was first detected in January this year, but it has only now been deemed severe enough to be listed. According to the WHO classification system, variants are determined first to be designated for “further monitoring,” before being promoted to “of interest,” and then, finally, “of concern.” If the newly discovered variant found in Russia is determined to be more serious, it will...