The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, conducted another pandemic tabletop exercise in Brussels, Belgium, on October 23, 2022.
The same people behind Event 201, which took place almost three years ago to the day, just completed a desktop simulation for a new Enterovirus originating in Brazil.
The exercise, dubbed Catastrophic Contagion, simulated WHO emergency health advisory board meetings addressing a fictional pandemic that spreads from Brazil to the rest of the world.
In addition to Bill Gates, 10 current and former Health Ministers and senior public health officials from Senegal, Rwanda, Nigeria, Angola, Liberia, Singapore, India, Germany participated in the simulation, which involved pre-recorded news broadcasts, live “staff” briefings, and moderated discussions.
The virus in this simulation, called the Enterovirus, has a higher fatality rate than COVID-19 and disproportionately affects children and young people.
The phenomenon is dubbed SEERS (Severe Epidemic Enterovirus Respiratory Syndrome 2025).