came to the netherlands over the weekend, but it now transpires that there were two test samples between the 19th and the 23rd. why am i telling you those dates? that s because south africa reported its findings, which started this omicron thing off, on the 24th. so, should you be alarmed that cases were actually in the netherlands before south africa said anything? well, no, actually, the world health organisation says they found the first in a specimen collected on the 9th of november. so, although we only heard about this the other week, it s actually been around for longer. early evidence suggests omicron is more transmissible than many forms of covid. and there are questions about how vaccines will cope with it. moderna makes one of the most used vaccines. its chief executive has told the ft. he goes on.