A group of globally elite government officials, businesspeople, and scientists gathered in New York to plan various strategies for steering society through a deadly pandemic—mere weeks before the first confirmed case of COVID-19. The scenario may sound like something out of a conspiracy theory, but it happened two years ago. On Oct. 18, 2019, the World Economic Forum, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and John Hopkins Center for Health Security hosted “Event 201”—a “high-level pandemic exercise” where world leaders simulated various policy responses to a global disease outbreak. When the first confirmed case of COVID-19 was confirmed to have occurred weeks later, rumors and speculation abounded about the similarities between the two events—so many so that organizers issued a response. No hard evidence has been produced to substantiate the rumors, but Event 201 did portend how many of the same global institutions would respond to some of the issues that …