In March 2021, NTI partnered with the Munich Security Conference to conduct a tabletop exercise on reducing high-consequence biological threats. Participants included 19 senior leaders and experts from across Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe with decades of combined experience in public health, biotechnology industry, international security, and philanthropy.

The exercise scenario portrayed a deadly, global pandemic involving an unusual strain of monkeypox virus that emerged in the fictional nation of Brinia and spread globally over 18 months. Ultimately, the exercise scenario revealed that the initial outbreak was caused by a terrorist attack using a pathogen engineered in a laboratory with inadequate biosafety and biosecurity provisions and weak oversight. By the end of the exercise, the fictional pandemic resulted in more than three billion cases and 270 million fatalities worldwide.

NTI,.org report: Strengthening Global Systems to Prevent and Respond to High-Consequence Biological Threats

UPDATE 1 – 23rd May 2022 – Monkeypox first case in Britain

Since Monkeypox was first detected on 7 May 2022 in the United Kingdom, a total of nine cases have been confirmed in the United Kingdom. Eight of the nine cases have no travel history and have no relation to the travel related case confirmed on 7 May.

ECDC: Epidemiological update: Monkeypox outbreak

Event 201 – A pandemic exercise hosted by Johns Hopkins, WEF & Bill Gates Foundation on October 18, 2019 in NYC