The coronavirus pandemic could have been prevented and millions of deaths avoided if the WHO and global leaders had responded with greater urgency, an independent review panel says.

Describing it as the 21st century’s “Chernobyl moment”, the panel commissioned by WHO said a failure to heed the lessons from COVID-19 would “condemn the world to successive catastrophes”.

Its report, released overnight, concluded: “It is clear that the combination of poor strategic choices, unwillingness to tackle inequalities and an unco-ordinated system created a toxic cocktail which allowed the pandemic to turn into a catastrophic human crisis.”

They were highly critical of WHO’s initial failure to sound its “loudest alarm” and declare the Wuhan outbreak in China a public health emergency of international concern, known as a PHEIC alert.