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Crimson Contagion

Crimson Contagion

Crimson Contagion was a series of multi-format pandemic preparedness exercises conducted by the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 2019. Crimson Contagion was overseen by Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Robert Kadlec.[1]

The series of exercises was created in response to “the need for the nation to better prepare for incidents in which DHS/FEMA is not the lead federal agency.”[2] It included two tabletop exercises, a seminar, and a functional exercise to examine issues related to response structures, information exchange, coordination of resources, and policy decisions.

History

The New York Times was the first to report on Crimson Contagion on March 19, 2020,[3] followed by National Public Radio (NPR) on March 20.[4]

Exercises

Crimson Contagion was made up of the following exercises:

Date(s) Title Participants
January 23-24, 2019 Internal HHS Pandemic Influenza Tabletop Exercise United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
April 10, 2019 Chicago and Illinois Pandemic Influenza Tabletop Exercise City of Chicago, Government of Illinois, HHS, Regional Federal Interagency Partners
May 14-15, 2019 Crimson Contagion 2019 Federal Interagency Seminar United States National Security Council, federal interagency partners, and Functional Exercise participating jurisdictions
August 13-16, 2019 Crimson Contagion 2019 Functional Exercise See Participants

Participants

Public and private organizations that took part in Crimson Contagion include:[5][6]

  • Administration for Children and Families (ACF)
  • Administration for Community Living (ACL)
  • Aetna
  • Allegheny County Health Department
  • Allegheny Health Network (AHN)
  • Amador Health Center
  • American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
  • American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA)
  • American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
  • American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
  • American Health Care Association (AHCA)
  • American Hospital Association (AHA)
  • American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA)
  • American Nurses Association (ANA)
  • American Red Cross
  • American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP)
  • America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP)
  • Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA)
  • Arizona Department of Health Services
  • Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM)
  • Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL)
  • Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
  • Augusta University
  • Blue Shield of California
  • Boston Children's Hospital
  • Carestream Health
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
  • Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
  • Central District Health Department
  • Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH)[7][8]
  • Chicago Office of Emergency Management & Communications (OEMC)
  • Cocopah Indian Tribe
  • Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment
  • Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT)
  • Connecticut Department of Public Health
  • Connecticut Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security
  • Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE)
  • Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office (CWMD)
  • Creative Testing Solutions
  • CVS Health
  • East Central Georgia Healthcare Coalition
  • Eastern Idaho Public Health
  • Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
  • Ephraim McDowell James B. Haggin Hospital
  • Erie County Department of Health (ECDOH)
  • Excela Health
  • Executive Office of the President of the United States
  • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
  • FEMA Region 1
  • FEMA Region 6
  • Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
  • Fort Mojave Indian Tribe
  • General Services Administration (GSA)
  • Giant Eagle Pharmacy
  • Gila River Indian Community
  • Grand Strand Health
  • HCA Healthcare
  • Health Industry Distributors Association (HIDA)
  • Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Health-ISAC)
  • Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
  • Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HPH SCC)
  • Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
  • Healthcare Ready
  • Highmark
  • Hopi Tribe
  • Idaho Department of Health and Welfare
  • Idaho Office of Emergency Management (IOEM)
  • Illinois Department of Public Health
  • Illinois Emergency Management Agency
  • Indian Health Service (IHS)
  • International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA)
  • J3 Operations
  • Jennie Stuart Health
  • Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS)
  • Joint Incident Advisory Group (JIAG)
  • Joint Staff Surgeon
  • Juvare
  • Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians
  • Kaiser Permanente
  • Kidney Community Emergency Response (KCER)
  • Labcorp
  • Management Directorate
  • Massachusetts Department of Public Health
  • Mayo Clinic
  • Medline
  • Medxcel
  • Moldex-Metric
  • National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA)
  • National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
  • National Business Emergency Operations Center (NBEOC)
  • National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA)
  • National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA)
  • National Indian Health Board (NIHB)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH)
  • National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
  • National Operations Center (NOC)
  • National Response Coordination Center (NRCC)
  • Navajo Nation
  • Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
  • New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services
  • New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
  • New Mexico Department of Health
  • New Mexico Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management
  • New York State Department of Health
  • NorthShore University HealthSystem
  • Northwell Health
  • Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA)
  • Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER)
  • Office of Emergency Management (OEM)
  • Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security (EHSS)
  • Office of Operations Coordination
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration (ASA)
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources (ASFR)
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH)
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Legislation (ASL)
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR)
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA)
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs
  • Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security
  • Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)
  • Office of the General Counsel (OGC)
  • Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
  • Operations Continuity Division
  • Panhandle Health District
  • Pascua Yaqui Tribe
  • Patients' Hospital
  • Pennsylvania Department of Health
  • Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA)
  • Public Health - Idaho North Central District
  • Pueblo of Sandia
  • Quechan Indian Tribe
  • RBC Limited
  • Riverside Health System
  • Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community
  • San Carlos Apache Tribe
  • San Mateo County Health Emergency Medical Services Agency
  • Seqirus
  • South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control
  • South Carolina Emergency Response Team (SERT)
  • South Central Public Health District
  • Southeastern Idaho Public Health
  • Southwest District Health
  • Spectrum Health
  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
  • Texas Health Resources
  • Tohono O'odham Nation
  • Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
  • TriStar Skyline Medical Center
  • United States Coast Guard
  • United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
  • United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
  • United States Department of Commerce (DOC)
  • United States Department of Defense (DOD)
  • United States Department of Energy (DOE)
  • United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
  • United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
  • United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
  • United States Department of Justice (DOJ)
  • United States Department of Labor (DOL)
  • United States Department of State (DOS)
  • United States Department of the Interior (DOI)
  • United States Department of the Treasury (USDT)
  • United States Department of Transportation (DOT)
  • United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
  • United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
  • United States Marshals Service
  • United States National Security Council (NSC)
  • United States Northern Command
  • United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
  • United States Small Business Administration (SBA)
  • UnitedHealth Group
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Utah Health
  • Verizon
  • Veterans Health Administration (VHA)
  • Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA)
  • White Mountain Apache Tribe

Additionally, IEM was hired to work with the Government of Illinois and the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) "to develop synthetic data on pandemic influenza cases so that their epidemiology team and their contact tracing teams could play during the exercise."[9]

Further reading

  1. Tucker, J. A. (2022, December 22). What Is Crimson Contagion? Brownstone Institute. https://brownstone.org/articles/what-is-crimson-contagion/ ↩︎

  2. Kadlec, R. P. (2020, January). Crimson Contagion 2019 Functional Exercise After-Action Report (p. 5). Governmentattic.org; United States Department of Health and Human Services. https://web.archive.org/web/20250206194413/https://www.governmentattic.org/38docs/HHSaarCrimsonContAAR_2020.pdf ↩︎

  3. Sanger, D. E., Lipton, E., Sullivan, E., & Crowley, M. (2020, March 19). Before Virus Outbreak, a Cascade of Warnings Went Unheeded. The New York Times. http://archive.vn/2020.03.19-161058/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-outbreak.html ↩︎

  4. Chang, A. (2020, March 20). What Last Year’s Government Simulation Predicted About Today’s Pandemic. NPR. https://web.archive.org/web/20250424222956/https://www.npr.org/2020/03/20/819186528/what-last-years-government-simulation-predicted-about-todays-pandemic ↩︎

  5. Kadlec, R. P. (2020, January). Crimson Contagion 2019 Functional Exercise After-Action Report (pp. A1-A7). Governmentattic.org; United States Department of Health and Human Services. https://web.archive.org/web/20250206194413/https://www.governmentattic.org/38docs/HHSaarCrimsonContAAR_2020.pdf ↩︎

  6. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. (2019). Crimson Contagion 2019 Functional Exercise (p. 2). United States Department of Health and Human Services; Modern Problems. https://web.archive.org/web/20250424224247/https://www.modpro.com/files/Crimson_Contagion_2019.pdf ↩︎

  7. Main, F., & FitzPatrick, L. (2020, April 5). Chicago’s coronavirus preparations: Despite “Crimson Contagion” pandemic drills, city didn’t fill public heal. Chicago Sun-Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20200405185038/https://chicago.suntimes.com/2020/4/5/21207597/crimson-contagion-pandemic-preparations-chicago-coronavirus-public-health ↩︎

  8. Marin, C., & Moseley, D. (2020, March 24). “Crimson Contagion 2019” Simulation Warned of Pandemic Implications in US. NBC Chicago. https://web.archive.org/web/20200325051448/https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/crimson-contagion-2019-simulation-warned-of-pandemic-implications-in-us/2243832/ ↩︎

  9. Comstock, T. (2020, November 25). Pandemic Data for HHS’s Crimson Contagion Exercise. IEM. https://web.archive.org/web/20210120185340/https://iem.com/pandemic-data-for-hhss-crimson-contagion-exercise/ ↩︎