Crimson Contagion
 A shot from a Crimson Contagion wrap up video.[1] | |
| Date | January 2019 - August 2019 |
|---|---|
| Location | New York, USA |
| Perpetrators | US Health and Human Services Department, Robert Kadlec |
| Interests | pandemics |
| Description | An U.S. nationwide exercise in how to handle an influenza pandemic |
Crimson Contagion was a U.S. large scale simulation of a global influenza pandemic,t o simulate the disaster declaration process for a pandemic flu response.[2]The National Security Council was involved in the simulation.[3]
Scenario
The exercise involved a scenario in which tourists returning from China spread a respiratory virus in the US, beginning in Chicago. The scenario depicted 110 million infections, 7.7 million hospitalizations & 586,000 deaths in the US.
The report issued at the conclusion of the exercise outlines the government's limited capacity to respond to a pandemic, with federal agencies lacking the funds, coordination, and resources to facilitate an effective response to the virus. Crimson Contagion begins at a point 47 days after the first case is discovered in the United States.
Lessons learned?
"The White House defended its record, saying it responded to the 2019 exercise with an executive order to improve the availability and quality of flu vaccines, and that it moved early this year to increase funding for the Health and Human Service Department’s program that focuses on global pandemic threats.
But officials have declined to say why the administration was so slow to roll out broad testing, or move faster, as the simulations all indicated it should, to urge social distancing and school closings.
Asked at his news briefing Thursday about the government’s preparedness, Trump responded, “Nobody knew there would be a pandemic or epidemic of this proportion. Nobody has ever seen anything like this before.”"Cite error: Invalid
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Related Quotation
| Page | Quote | Author | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| COVID-19/Timeline | “the next epidemic could originate on the computer screen of a terrorist intent on using genetic engineering to create a synthetic version of the smallpox virus . . . or a super contagious and deadly strain of the flu. [...] Whether it occurs by a quirk of nature or at the hand of a terrorist, epidemiologists say a fast-moving airborne pathogen could kill more than 30 million people in less than a year. And they say there is a reasonable probability the world will experience such an outbreak in the next 10-15 years.” | Bill Gates | 17 February 2017 |
Related Document
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:All Roads Lead to Dark Winter | report | 1 April 2020 | Whitney Webb |
