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Abstract: In this fictional scenario, seven panelists and a moderator participated in a simulated public health event -- the import of a lethal strain of “super SARS” via an international airplane traveler. The seven panelists participating in this interactive simulation represented decision-makers who would be integral players in a real-life communicable disease outbreak. Panelists were asked to represent federal and state public health officials and attorneys, a private attorney, and a federal judge. In the simulation, they were asked to accept a series of facts, beginning with a report from public health officials in an Asian country warning of an airplane passenger suspected of harboring a highly infectious virus. Before landing at an international airport in the fictional state of “South Caledonia,” federal and state public health officials were notified of the impending arrival of the passenger and the airplane containing hundreds of other passengers. The panelists then responded, in their assigned roles, to an unfolding series of facts deriving from the progression of the scenario.
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