Sir Lawrence Freedman attacks 'lacklustre' government response to coronavirus

He  added: "We need to go right back. One of the problems we had this time was the last big pandemic scare we had with swine flu - the general view was that it had been over-played, there had been too much alarmism. 

"We spent too much money trying to prepare for something that didn't happen. Maybe one of the things to watch for us is that maybe we learnt the wrong lessons from that.''

In 2009 an estimated 540,000 people contracted swine flu in the UK, with the number of deaths at 214 - far fewer than originally feared.

Sir Lawrence added that the relatively limited spread of sars in 2003 might have also suggested to UK leaders that viruses of this type might not become a problem outside the Far East.

Speaking about the "critical week'' in March, ''the response seemed very lacklustre compared with what others were doing.''

He said the shock study that emerged from Imperial College, warning of a need for a tougher lockdown to prevent mass fatalities, left the government ''looking like it was following public opinion rather than leading it.''

Sir Lawrence has authored many acclaimed books including A Choice Of Enemies: America Confronts The Middle East, which suggested the region's problems cannot all be traced to the Arab-Israeli dispute.