Exercise Polaris: The WHO Just Ran A 2-Day Pandemic Preparedness Exercise

When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic five years ago, it sometimes felt like we’d been caught on the back foot. Amid the scrambling over lockdowns, masks, and quarantine orders, those of us not working at the highest levels of government could be forgiven for thinking it all looked a bit… chaotic.

And in many ways, it was – no two diseases are exactly the same, and a coronavirus pandemic was different, in important ways, from anything else we’d faced in living memory. There were bound to be some missteps.

But before you lose all hope in your elected representatives, that’s not to say there had been no preparation prior to COVID. Pandemics are just one possible threat to their citizens that governments must be aware of and, just like for terrorist attacks or natural disasters, they plan for how they might handle them.

The WHO, as a global agency, aims to bring together multiple countries and health bodies throughout the world to mount a coordinated response in the event of another worldwide health emergency. Exercise Polaris was a way of testing that.

There were over 15 countries involved in or observing the exercise including Canada, Denmark, Germany, Nepal, Pakistan, and Ukraine. Regional and global health agencies, including Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and UNICEF, also took part, a cumulative total of over 350 global health experts.

“The exercise sought to put into practice the procedures for inter-agency response to international health threats,” said Dr Mariela Marín, Vice Minister of Health of Costa Rica, in a statement. “Efficient coordination and interoperability processes are key to guaranteeing timely interventions in health emergencies.”

During the simulated scenario, each participating country led its own local response while being able to call upon the WHO for technical assistance, emergency support, and to coordinate efforts with other countries.

Coming out of the exercise, it’s fair to say the reaction was optimistic.

“Polaris demonstrated the critical importance of cultivating trust before a crisis occurs. The foundation of our collaborative efforts is significantly stronger than in years past. We’ve moved beyond reactive measures, and are now proactively anticipating, aligning, and coordinating our cross-border emergency response plans,” commented Dr Soha Albayat from Qatar, one of the participating nations.

“Exercise Polaris showed what is possible when countries operate with urgency and unity supported by well-connected partners. It is a strong signal that we are collectively more ready than we were,” added Dr Mike Ryan, Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.

Nobody knows where the next pandemic will come from. People are closely watching H5N1 bird flu for any signs of human-to-human spread – it hasn’t been seen yet, but it would be a strong indicator of a virus with pandemic potential. Another coronavirus can’t be discounted either.

Of course, it might not be a virus at all. So-called Disease X could be a fungal or bacterial pathogen – a possibility some argue is being overlooked, despite the blaring alarm bells of antimicrobial resistance.

While we can’t say with any certainty what the next pandemic might look like, we do know it will come. The message from Exercise Polaris is that when it does, we’ll stand our best chance if we meet it together as a global community.

“No country can face the next pandemic alone,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Exercise Polaris shows that global cooperation is not only possible – it is essential.”