This evening, on the news in the Netherlands there was a warning for our time. The government recently asked a group of scientists to look in to how the country was dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. They were told to report back in August. They didn't wait that long.

Now, the Netherlands has been doing well on Covid-19. They had a lock-down. But schools have reopened (for all pupils) - shops are functioning normally - restaurants and bars are relaxed - half the hairdressers I see don't seem to bother with face masks.

Apart from the signs reminding you to keep 1.5m apart, and the handgell stations at the front of the shops, and the people reminding you to mask-up on public transport you wouldn't know there's anything going on.

But that group of scientists saw different. What they saw alarmed them so much they decided they couldn't wait until August to release their findings. Instead they broke ranks and demanded the government come back from holiday and create a new plan.

When they plotted the data for Covid-19 now in the Netherlands, they recognised the chart. It is they say almost exactly the same as the chart from February, when Europe was emerging as the centre of the pandemic.

The graph rises in the same way. Cases in the Netherlands are rising again. It's the second wave, some argue, not in autumn, nor winter, but now. The scientists say because people got complacent. They thought it was all over.

Today in the supermarket in a small Dutch town I felt like an alien, because I was wearing a mask. No one else was. When I took a covid-19 test I asked the nurse about it. She said so few people wore them, "but they all should".

That's what this group of scientists conclude. Right now they say masks need to be compulsory. Social distancing reinforced. No large gatherings. Restrict people coming in from at risk areas (including the US). They want politicians to acknowledge that and change things, fast.