A handwritten note reading “We are f*****” was passed between two scientific advisers to the Government at a meeting over the emerging pandemic in March 2020, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has heard.

The assessment of Britain’s readiness for the impending turmoil was made by data expert Ben Warner, who worked in No 10 and attended talks held by the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

President of the Behavioural Insights Team Professor David Halpern said the meeting on March 13 had been a moment when the “penny dropped” for him that there were “lots of grounds for concern”.

Speaking at the inquiry, he cited evidence that the NHS would be overwhelmed, a lack of preparedness in relation to testing, and “overconfident” modelling of the impact of the virus as issues that were weighing heavily on him.

During the meeting, he had written: “We are not ready” in capital letters on a piece of paper, before Downing Street colleague Mr Warner leaned over his shoulder and crossed out “not ready”, replacing it with “f*****”, the inquiry heard.

“I really felt quite shocked and depressed,” Prof Halpern said on Wednesday.

“I felt that it’s not our role to do all those things, we’re working on the behavioural aspects.”

He added: “I felt that on people’s faces in the room, there was some realisation of it – a cracking in the confidence.”

Others in the meeting had felt, like him, that the Government should be pursuing suppression strategies, he said.

It came 10 days before the first national lockdown was announced on March 23 and three days before then-prime minister Boris Johnson told people to stop non-essential contact and travel.