Experts warn world ‘grossly unprepared’ for future pandemics

Dire risk is compounded by climate crisis, urbanisation and lack of sanitation, says global monitoring board

It sounds like an improbable fiction: a virulent flu pandemic, source unknown, spreads across the world in 36 hours, killing up to 80 million people, sparking panic, destabilising national security and slicing chunks off the world's economy.

But a group of prominent international experts has issued a stark warning: such a scenario is entirely plausible and efforts by governments to prepare for it are "grossly insufficient".