deborah padda, cbs news, johannesburg. >>> meanwhile, former-fda commissioner and pfizer board member, dr. scott gottlieb, told face the nation's margaret brennen south africa has 16 million doses of the vaccine that they have not yet distributed. let's go now to cbs's lilia luciano in los angeles with more on dr. gottlieb's advice on this strain. good evening, lilia. >> reporter: good evening to you, meg. dr. gottlieb said it's crucial to determine whether this variant is vaccine resistant to figure out how to best fight covid. holiday crowds are filling the sidewalks, free ways, and airport in l.a. this weekend amid growing concerns about omicron, the new coronavirus strain. >> it's almost definitely here already. just looking at the number of cases coming off planes this weekend, it's almost a certainty that there have been cases that have gotten into the united states. >> reporter: scientists are working to quickly understand just how dangerous and contagious the strain is but they say they haven't found that omicron is vaccine resistant. former fda commissioner dr. scott gottlieb

cbs's deborah padda leads off our coverage tonight from south africa. >> reporter: once again, a pandemic-weary