text: In 2021, a study proposed that L1 elements may be responsible for potential endogenisation of the SARS-CoV-2 genome in Huh7 mutant cancer cells, which would possibly explain why some patients test PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2 even after clearance of the virus. These results however have been criticized as not reproducible, misleading and infrequent or artefactual.