Originally published June 1, 2023 7:29 am PDT
A delegate from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), a branch of the World Health Organization (WHO), recently advocated for running a “simulation exercise,” according to a report from Reclaim the Net.
The proposal was made during the World Health Assembly, WHO’s annual decision-making event, at a strategic roundtable discussion.
The simulation aims to test the efficacy and implications of two powerful new instruments set to bolster the WHO’s power: an international pandemic treaty and revisions to the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005.
From the GPMB delegate’s perspective, this simulation is crucial to “ensure” the success of the imminent pandemic treaty and the proposed IHR amendments.
The delegate stated, “We feel very strongly that we cannot wait for the next emergency to find out how well the pandemic accord and the IHR amendments will work.”
Stressing the apparent urgency of the situation, they further added, “We need to know now.”
In order to evaluate the impact of the proposed changes, the GPMB representative proposed a strategy involving a collective effort.
“We therefore suggest that member states together with other key stakeholders carry out a simulation exercise based on the draft accord and the draft IHR amendments later this year,” they said.
The representative sees this exercise as a proactive measure to anticipate and address any potential pitfalls or areas of contention that may arise.
The simulation, according to the delegate, is set to “provide assurance of the effectiveness” of the new regulations, “identify any remaining gaps,” and “resolve any outstanding areas of disagreement.”
The simulation exercise is expected to occur before the formal adoption of the pandemic treaty and the IHR amendments, which are slated for approval in May 2024.
This implies that the proposed simulation is likely to be carried out within the next year.
But this isn’t the first time a pandemic simulation has been conducted.
On October 18, 2019, just months before the coronavirus outbreak, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Gates Foundation hosted “Event 201” in New York, New York.
Johns Hopkins described the event as a “high-level pandemic exercise.”
The exercise represented a “3.5-hour pandemic tabletop exercise that simulated a series of dramatic, scenario-based facilitated discussions, confronting difficult, true-to-life dilemmas associated with response to a hypothetical, but scientifically plausible, pandemic,” according to Johns Hopkins.
The COVID pandemic would commence just months later, raising questions about the connection between these simulations and real-world events.
