A panel of independent experts has harshly reviewed the World Health Organization’s handling of the 2009 epidemic of H1N1 swine flu, though it found no evidence supporting the most outlandish accusation made against the agency: that it exaggerated the alarm to help vaccine companies get rich.

The world is still unprepared to handle a severe pandemic, and if a more dangerous virus emerges, “tens of millions would be at risk of dying,” the panel said in its draft report, which was posted on an obscure corner of the W.H.O.’s Web site on Thursday.

Although millions of doses of vaccine ultimately went unused, the panel found “no evidence of malfeasance.”

The virus appeared severe during its spring outbreak in Mexico City, and it was not clear how relatively mild it really was until late summer, “well past the time when countries would have needed to place orders for vaccine,” the panel said.