Plague Inc. The Cure: Behind the scenes
What do real life experts think about the game? What progress is being made towards preparing for the next epidemic or pandemic threat? Find out below about the work of CEPI and our partners Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO) below.
Plague Inc: The Cure raises awareness of what it takes to rapidly respond to pandemic threats.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, gaming studio Ndemic Creations teamed up with global health experts—like the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)—to gather real-world insights to create Plague Inc: The Cure.
Of course, as a game, Plague Inc: The Cure has to simplify a number of really complex concepts, like the steps involved in researching new medicines or how quickly interventions like national lockdowns can actually be implemented. However, the game captures the importance of one of the most critical tools we have to combat pandemic diseases: vaccines.
How important are vaccines in our fight against diseases like COVID-19 and other emerging infectious threats? And what does it really take to develop a vaccine at pandemic speed?
Experts play Plague Inc: The Cure
As part of a public awareness campaign, launched in March 2021 by Ndemic Creations and WHO in response to the COVID-19, gamers and WHO experts worked together to promote actions that everyone could take to combat COVID-19 and learn to detect and act upon misinformation.
Watch this 45-minute joint gameplay where experts from WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network comment on decisions made by gamers in real-time and compare it with public health management in real-life scenarios.
The game also showcases WHO health and safety COVID-19 messaging and prevention tips for players to take offline and use in their daily lives.
How does vaccine development work in the real world?
Vaccine development is a complex and expensive process. Traditionally, it may take 10-15 years to get a vaccine from the lab to getting approved by national regulators, as shown below.
However, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CEPI set the ambitious goal of developing a safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine in 12-18-months.
The first approval of a vaccine following large-scale trials was issued in December, 2021, a mere 326 days after the virus was sequenced. By building on the lessons learned in 2020, it should be possible in the long term to compress vaccine development timelines still further. That would allow healthcare systems to stamp out disease outbreaks much earlier and save many more lives.
Find out more about how vaccine safety is assessed in clinical trials here.
Developing pandemic-busting vaccines in 100 Days
Vaccines are our most potent weapon against infectious diseases and are at the heart of the global response to epidemic and pandemic threats. The faster safe and effective vaccines are developed and deployed, the faster a looming pandemic can be contained and controlled.
CEPI’s vision is for the world to be able to respond to the next Disease X with a new vaccine in 100 days. Achieving that goal could defuse the threat of a pathogen with pandemic potential.
If the world had delivered a vaccine in 100 days from the time when the COVID-19 viral sequences were released, a vaccine would have become available in April 2020, when there were cumulatively just over 2 million cases of COVID worldwide, rather than in December 2020, when there were almost 70 million.
Coupled with improved surveillance providing earlier detection and warning, and with swift and effective use of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as testing, contact tracing and social distancing to suppress disease transmission, delivering a vaccine in 100 days would give the world a fighting chance to extinguish the existential threat of a future pandemic virus.
Preparing for “Disease X”
There are trillions upon trillions of viruses out there – more than there are stars in the universe. Thankfully, we don’t need to be able to find and fight them all.
The viruses that put humanity at greatest risk to date come from 25 or so virus families. It is these families that are most likely to produce the next deadly viral threat.
But, armed with knowledge about these viral families, combining our global resources, and harnessing the latest advances in vaccine science, we can better prepare for the next Disease X.
Join CEPI’s disease detectives and explore The Viral Most Wanted.
Latest News
Latest News
Richard Hatchett reflects on a “banner year for viruses” and looks ahead to 2025
In his end-of-year message, CEPI's CEO, Dr Richard Hatchett, reflects on a "banner year for viruses" and explores the trends, innovations and technologies that are shaping the future of global health.
Valneva expands access to Asia for its chikungunya vaccine with Serum
The collaboration to support broader vaccine access to the region falls within the agreement between Valneva and CEPI with co-funding from the EU.
Establishing vaccine safety benchmarking in Africa for African vaccines
Consortium is set to further establish a vaccine safety evidence-generation network in Africa, seeking to understand prevalence of anticipated adverse events specifically relevant to African populations.
The Pneumoviruses and Adenoviruses
Among these viruses is a pervasive pathogen that infects nearly all babies and children worldwide at least once— sometimes twice—before they reach the age of two
Scientists launch largest-ever study tracking chikungunya burden in East Africa
Led by the University of Oxford, researchers are set to investigate the number of children and adults affected by chikungunya in Kenya and Tanzania.
Transatlantic scientists to transition traditional vaccine development onto rapid-response platform for faster outbreak control
Partnership could speed up parts of the vaccine development process by several months and save over £1 million in development costs
CEPI and Accumulus Synergy team up to enhance information equity and accelerate access to vaccines
Accumulus' cloud-based data-sharing platform could speed up access to vaccines and other health technologies by accelerating regulatory review.
Dr Amadou Sall to join CEPI as Executive Director of Manufacturing and Supply Chain
Dr Sall will join CEPI on 1 June 2025 upon completion of his tenure as CEO of Senegal’s Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD).
The Rhabdoviruses
The most fearsome Rhabdovirus causes a killer infection which makes its victims foam at the mouth
New project aims to bolster global vaccine preparedness against SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2
Project will help to ensure the availability of antibody reagents for the development of vaccines against SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2.
Latest News
