COVID: Planned, Predicted or Prepared For?

<p>Years before COVID changed the world, experts were warning about pandemics. There were coronavirus simulations, vaccine research already underway, billions of dollars eventually at stake, and questions about the virus’s origin that still have not completely disappeared.</p><p>Coincidence?</p><p>Preparation?</p><p>Or something more?</p><p>In Part Four of our COVID series, we examine Event 201, earlier pandemic scenarios, mRNA research, pharmaceutical profits, the lab-leak debate, and the difference between preparing for a pandemic—and planning one.</p><p><strong>We present the evidence. You decide what it means.</strong></p><p><br></p><p>Sources</p><ul><li><p><strong>Bill Gates — TED2015, “The Next Outbreak? We’re Not Ready.”</strong> March 2015. <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready/tran-script?utm_source=chatgpt.com">TED</a> <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_the_next_outbreak_we_re_not_ready?utm_source=chatgpt.com">TED — The Next Outbreak? We’re Not Ready</a></p></li><li><p><strong>Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security — SPARS Pandemic Scenario.</strong> Released October 2017. <a href="https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/2017/center-for-health-security-releases-risk-communications-exercise-scenario-focused-on-medical-countermeasures-in-a-pandemic?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security</a> <a href="https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/2017/center-for-health-security-releases-risk-communications-exercise-scenario-focused-on-medical-countermeasures-in-a-pandemic?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Johns Hopkins — SPARS Pandemic Scenario</a></p></li><li><p><strong>Johns Hopkins — Event 201 Pandemic Exercise.</strong> Held October 18, 2019, in partnership with the World Economic Forum and Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation. . <a href="https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/tabletop-exercises/event-201-pandemic-tabletop-exercise?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security</a> <a href="https://centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/tabletop-exercises/event-201-pandemic-tabletop-exercise?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Johns Hopkins — Event 201</a></p></li><li><p><strong>NIH — Development of the Moderna COVID vaccine.</strong> NIH states that its scientists had been working with Moderna on vaccines for other coronaviruses for several years before SARS-CoV-2 appeared, allowing the COVID vaccine program to move much faster once the new virus was identified. <a href="https://w