My impression of the current U.K. government is that the only thing it can do well is utter “clickbait”-style soundbites. This is suboptimal, and I hope my impression is inaccurate.
What does "clickbait" mean in this context? Traditional clickbait is "you won't believe what just happened, click to read!".
I have no love for the UK government, but clickbait is not the word that comes to mind. Here's the quote:
“Over the last few days, thanks to our world-class genomic capability in the UK, we have identified a new variant of coronavirus which may be associated with the fastest spread of the virus in the south-east of England.
“Initial analysis suggests that this variant is growing faster than the existing variance [sic, should be 'variants'?]. We’ve currently identified over 1,000 cases with this variant, predominantly in the south of England, although cases have been identified in nearly 60 different local authority areas and numbers are increasing rapidly.”