The researchers behind a mock weaponized disease outbreak meant to test the response of political and medical experts in the U.S. said their results have revealed how vulnerable the world remains.
A team at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security created the “Clade X” simulation drill, and tagged the disease as “moderately contagious” and “moderately lethal,” Business Insider reported.
The researchers said Clade X was comparable to the SARS virus, which had a mortality rate of about 10 percent and infected more than 8,000 between 2002 and 2003. However, the results of their drill found that after 20 months, Clade X would have wiped out 150 million people worldwide, and if no vaccine could be produced, the total number of fatalities would reach 900 million, or 10 percent of the global population.
