Evolution is often thought to be a process of trial and error. In fact, it’s the other way round: evolution proceeds by error and trial. Every cell in your body contains your DNA, which is replicated whenever a cell divides. Inevitably, in the countless divisions there will be occasional errors in transcription – mutations. Those errors are then ‘tested’ to find out whether or not they confer an advantage over the unmutated form.

Here’s the bad news: real GDP in the UK dipped to -10.3% in 2020, and unemployment rose from 3.7% to 5.4% across 2019/2020. Similar grim figures have emerged across the globe as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic – GDP growth for the EU was -7.4%, and unemployment rose from 3.7% to 8.9% in the USA – and with the inevitable emergence of viral mutations there is still a hard road ahead. The (sort-of) good news is that vaccines were produced in record time, and approved just as quickly in many countries. The dark cloud behind the silver lining is that the availability of vaccines will for some time be limited, and will disproportionately benefit rich countries at a cost to poorer ones: unlike trade, altruism is definitely not global.