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Event 201

Event 201

Event 201 was a pandemic preparedness exercise that took place on October 18, 2019 in New York City, New York. It was organized by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with funding from Open Philanthropy.[1]

The exercise simulated the public-private response to a fictitious coronavirus pandemic outbreak.

History

Over the years, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS) hosted a series of pandemic preparedness exercises simulating a variety of scenarios involving biological weapons and infectious diseases.[1:1]

Dark Winter, which took place June 22-23, 2001, simulated a covert smallpox attack on citizens of the United States, narrowly predating the real-world 2001 anthrax attacks that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.[2][3]

Then, on January 14, 2005, JHCHS organized Atlantic Storm at the Center for Biosecurity of UPMC.[4] Participants "used a fictitious scenario designed to mimic a summit of transatlantic leaders forced to respond to a bioterrorist attack."[5] Finally, Clade X: A Global Health Security Simulation took place on May 15, 2018, simulating efforts to counter a fast-moving and deadly epidemic released on purpose by a terrorist group consisting of scientists and their rich backers wanting to reduce overpopulation.[6]

On October 14, 2019, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security announced on Facebook that they would be hosting yet another pandemic preparedness exercise called “Event 201”.[7] The event took place four days later on October 19.

Participants

Participants in Event 201 were primarily leaders in the private and public sector, providing the opportunity to strengthen working relationships between governments, non-governmental organizations, regulatory agencies and corporations. An audience of "nearly 130 people" attended the exercise on an invitation-only basis.[8]

Introductory remarks were delivered by Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme.[9]

Name Role Notes
Jeffrey French Exercise Lead Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Ryan Morhard Exercise Lead World Economic Forum (WEF), Ginkgo Bioworks, Center for a New American Security
Eric Toner Exercise Lead Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, COVID-Local
Tara Kirk Sell Exercise Co-Lead Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Covid Commission Planning Group
Crystal Watson Exercise Co-Lead Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Richard Bruns Exercise Team Member Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins University Department of Environmental Health and Engineering, Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Anita Cicero Exercise Team Member Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Technical Advisory Group on the Responsible Use of the Life Sciences and Dual-Use Research
Julia Cizek Exercise Team Member Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, LifeBridge Health (LBH)
Jackie Fox Exercise Team Member Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Oxford University Press, American Public Health Association (APHA), American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA)
Tom Inglesby Exercise Team Member Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, COVID Collaborative, National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice
Andrea Lapp Exercise Team Member Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Randy Larsen Exercise Team Member United States Air Force (USAF), Bipartisan WMD Terrorism Research Center, Institute for Homeland Security (IHS), Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism
Diane Meyer Exercise Team Member Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Health Security
Carol Miller Exercise Team Member Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Margaret Miller Exercise Team Member Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health
Caitlin Rivers Exercise Team Member COVID Collaborative, United States Army, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Matthew Shearer Exercise Team Member United States Navy, Outbreak Observatory
Matthew Watson Exercise Team Member Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), Mitre, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security
Latoya Abbott Player[1:2] Marriott International, Howard University, Capella University
Sofia Borges Player[1:3] United Nations Foundation, United Nations General Assembly, Asian Development Bank
Brad Connett Player[1:4] Henry Schein
Christopher Elias Player[1:5] Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CDC Advisory Committee to the Director, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), Population Council
Timothy Evans Player[1:6] McGill School of Population and Global Health, COVID-19 Immunity Task Force, Vaccine Surveillance Reference Group (VSRG), World Bank Group, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
George Gao Player[1:7] Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Avril Haines Player[1:8] Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Columbia University, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, National Committee on Military, National, and Public Service, WestExec Advisors, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), Vodafone Foundation, Refugees International
Jane Halton Player[1:9] National COVID-19 Commission Advisory Board, Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), World Health Organization (WHO), World Health Assembly, Australian Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Matthew Harrington Player[1:10] Edelman, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, PR Council
Martin Knuchel Player[1:11] Lufthansa Group, Swiss International Air Lines
Eduardo Martinez Player[1:12] UPS Foundation, United Parcel Service (UPS), Private Sector Roundtable on Global Health Security, World Economic Forum (WEF)
Stephen Redd Player[1:13] United States Public Health Service, Influenza Coordination Unit (ICU), CDC Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response
Hasti Taghi Player[1:14] NBCUniversal, ExxonMobil, Texas Children's Hospital, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
Lavan Thiru Player[1:15] Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Clifford Capital, Ministry of Finance of Singapore
Adrian Thomas Player[1:16] Johnson & Johnson (J&J), AMR Industry Alliance, Janssen, Aspen Institute

Publications

  1. Event 201. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Retrieved December 27, 2024, from https://web.archive.org/web/20241227231213/https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/tabletop-exercises/event-201-pandemic-tabletop-exercise#players ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  2. Dark Winter. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Retrieved May 28, 2022, from http://archive.vn/2022.05.28-075750/https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/exercises/2001_dark-winter/index.html ↩︎

  3. The Dark Winter Scenario and Bioterrorism. (2001, October 25). United States Senate Committee on Armed Services; U.S. Government Printing Office. http://archive.today/2020.05.17-193549/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-107shrg79479/html/CHRG-107shrg79479.htm ↩︎

  4. About the Project. Atlantic Storm. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from https://web.archive.org/web/20131020090646/http://www.atlantic-storm.org/about.html ↩︎

  5. Atlantic Storm. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Retrieved December 27, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20241227231331/https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/tabletop-exercises/atlantic-storm-a-tabletop-exercise ↩︎

  6. Clade X: A Global Health Security Pandemic Simulation Highlights Need to Support Global Health Security Initiatives. (2018, August 16). Global Health Council. http://archive.today/2022.04.12-160103/https://globalhealth.org/clade-x-a-global-health-security-pandemic-simulation-highlights-need-to-support-global-health-security-initiatives/ ↩︎

  7. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. (2019, October 14). Event 201 Facebook Event Announcement. Facebook. https://archive.org/details/event-201-facebook-event-announcement ↩︎

  8. Event 201, a Pandemic exercise to illustrate preparedness efforts. (2019, November 11). Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. http://archive.today/2022.01.03-222033/https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/event201/ ↩︎

  9. Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security [centerforhealthsecurity]. (2019, November 4). Event 201 Pandemic Exercise: Segment 1, Intro and Medical Countermeasures (MCM) Discussion. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm1-DnxRiPM ↩︎