Sir Keir Starmer is getting the UK ready for another pandemic – which scientists now agree is a case of when, not if.

In scenes more comfortably watched in a TV drama, the largest-ever British simulation of a disease outbreak took place this autumn, involving every single Whitehall department, as well as the emergency services and the NHS.

Over three days, Exercise Pegasus war-gamed what would happen if a new, mystery virus struck the country.

It simulated an initial increase in infections causing vomiting, paralysis and meningitis, which were largely linked to travel to an overseas, fictional island. New Feature

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The cause of the disease – more infectious and deadly than Covid – was a previously unknown pathogen, and scientists scramb

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