Global health leaders conduct pandemic simulation exercise in Kenya amid ongoing disease outbreaks

A group of former presidents and world leaders known as the Elders participated in a pandemic preparedness simulation at WHO headquarters near Nairobi. The exercise presented hypothetical disease outbreak scenarios in Chad to test decision-making under pressure, exploring barriers to timely reporting and international collaboration. Participants including former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege discussed systemic weaknesses in African health infrastructure, lack of political incentives for transparency, and the erosion of trust between wealthy and developing nations stemming from pandemic-era vaccine inequity. The simulation stressed the importance of multilateral cooperation, integrated climate-health strategies, and stronger verification systems modeled on successful sectors. The exercise occurred amid concurrent hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, underlining the reality of emerging infectious disease threats.