Johns Hopkins hosts pandemic simulation exercise for congressional staffers

The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Global Health Council, NTI Bio, and PATH hosted a simulation exercise for congressional staffers to demonstrate the need for congressional support and action to prevent infectious disease threats.

The exercise, called Clade X: A Global Health Security Simulation, is a modified version of the original day-long Clade X pandemic exercise designed by the Center for Health Security. It highlights the necessity for effective preventive interventions and accountability of government agencies during global health crises. It showed staff the choices government leaders must make during a pandemic.

It emphasized the need for the Trump Administration and Congress to develop and support a U.S. strategy for pandemic preparedness. In the fictional scenario, U.S. government leaders were tasked with responding to pandemic outbreaks occurring simultaneously in Venezuela and Germany.

After the demonstration, the Center for Health Security presented the staffers with six strategic policy goals to prevent or reduce the worst possible outcomes in future pandemics. Policy goals include developing the capability to produce new vaccines and drugs for novel pathogens quicker, pioneering a strong and sustainable global health security system, and building a highly capable national public health system that can manage the challenges of pandemic response. Additional goals will seek to develop a national plan to effectively harness all US healthcare assets in a catastrophic pandemic, implement an international strategy for addressing research that increases pandemic risks, and ensure the national security community is well prepared to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease emergencies.