The UN agency conducted an exercise earlier this month that simulated a global outbreak of a “fictional” virus.
As reported by The Telegraph, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently simulated a scenario involving a deadly global outbreak of “mammothpox,” a virus that had been dormant in a woolly mammoth’s remains. The Telegraph cited documents it obtained about the exercise.
According to a press release from the global health authority, Exercise Polaris, involving over 15 countries, took place earlier this month. It “simulated an outbreak of a fictional virus spreading across the world” to assess pandemic preparedness.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned earlier this month that a new pandemic, an “epidemiological certainty,” “could happen in 20 years or more, or it could happen tomorrow.”
The exercise reportedly simulated an outbreak of “Mammothpox,” a fictional virus resembling smallpox, a disease with a 30% mortality rate eradicated in 1980, and mpox, a dangerous variant currently spreading rapidly across central Africa.
The scenario described the virus’s release following the excavation of a woolly mammoth in the Arctic by a team of scientists and documentary filmmakers. Within weeks, intensive care units worldwide were “overwhelmed,” and health systems struggled to cope.
The WHO acknowledged that while the countries involved contained the fictional virus in the exercise, a real outbreak would be far more complex.
The agency’s briefing document reportedly stated that “ancient viruses can remain viable in permafrost for thousands of years,” and that thawing permafrost in the Arctic due to climate change could lead to the “release of pathogens previously unknown to modern medicine.”
The Telegraph noted that scientists and ivory hunters are increasingly excavating ancient remains, including those of woolly mammoths, in the Arctic due to rising temperatures. Many ivory hunters reportedly conduct these excavations without adequate health precautions.
Scientists have also been studying ancient samples, with some researchers working to revive “zombie viruses” found alongside frozen animal remains, which could potentially be deadly to humans. A virus revived by French scientist Jean-Michel Claverie in 2023 was determined to be 48,500 years old based on radiocarbon dating.