New Yorker: The Terrifying Lessons of a Pandemic Simulation
“…This is the third major pandemic exercise that the [Johns Hopkins] Center for Health Security has run. … ‘I would say there has been enormous progress in our preparedness since [2001],’ Tom Inglesby, the center’s director, who played the national security adviser in [the Clade X simulation, said]. These advances include new preparedness programs and offices at the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services; national stockpiling of vaccines and medications; and, at the international level, investments in emergency financing and infectious disease infrastructure. … ‘In a way, it’s sad that we’re still having these conversations,’ [former CDC director Julie] Gerberding told me, during a pause in the proceedings. Back in 2001, she helped lead the CDC’s response to the anthrax attacks of that year. ‘We have a Department of Defense, we fund it pretty well, and it’s pretty stellar,’ she said. ‘We still don’t have that for this kind of defense'” (Twilley, 6/1).