Tens of thousands of deaths, crippling economic costs and creaking public services were predicted in the 2019 National Security Risk Assessment.
Almost foreboding the current coronavirus crisis, it recommended stockpiling personal protective equipment and drawing up plans to repatriate stranded Britons abroad.
The government was also told to shore up the infrastructure needed to conduct mass contact tracing, in a revelation that will pour petrol on the simmering row over the lack of testing.
The 600-page report, which was leaked to the Guardian, will further fuel accusations the government was caught flat-footed by the health emergency because of a lack of long-term planning.
Chief scientific officer Sir Patrick Vallance, one of the key figures steering the Covid-19 fightback, signed off the report last year and impressed the need for 'robust' plans to deal with a pandemic.
The assessment said a relatively mild outbreak of 'moderate virulence' could lead to 65,600 deaths and could cost the UK £2.35trillion....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...
