Before the Curve is an educational simulation inspired by Dr. Tom Frieden’s The Formula for Better Health, and it is not medical or public-health advice. The city of Meridian and its outbreak are fictional, as is every character in the story. The epidemic model has been simplified for teaching and does not predict the course of a real outbreak.
© 2026 Tom Frieden & Louisa Sun · Music by Bensound.com · Terms of use and credits
Special thanks to Ms Julia Sherry for her peer review of the simulation.
A drug-resistant outbreak is stirring in the city of Meridian — and you’ve just been made its Director of Public Health. See the threat before it’s obvious, make a doubtful city believe it can be stopped, and build the response that beats it.
You are Meridian’s newly appointed Director of Public Health. A cluster of drug-resistant illness is surfacing in one working-class district, and almost no one is worried yet. Over three acts you decide how a city of six hundred thousand sees a danger, believes it can be beaten, and acts — under political pressure, and against the clock.
Spot the real threat while it is still small — and get anyone to act before it is obvious.
Everyone can see it now. Make a tired, doubtful city believe it can actually be beaten.
Belief saves no one on its own. Build the fast, fair response that puts the fire out.
There is no undo. What you do in the first weeks carries into the last: the people you win or lose, the trust and budget you bank, the doors that open or close — even who lives. Three acts, but one continuous story, and it remembers everything you do. Play it in one sitting or across the week — it saves as you go and picks up at the exact scene you left.
Before the Curve is built on Dr. Tom Frieden’s The Formula for Better Health. Every decision you face is a genuine public-health principle in disguise — and as you play, you collect the page of the Formula behind each one. It is made to turn that thinking into something you feel, not just read about.
You don't need prior public-health study to start — and Before the Curve is built to teach the way public health thinks, rather than to test what you already know. It works as a first encounter with how outbreaks are caught and stopped, and just as well as a capstone once you've read The Formula. Technical terms are introduced as they arise — and any you don't know carry a dotted underline you can hover or tap for a plain-language definition.
By the end, you'll have practised how to:
Before the Curve is an educational simulation with a fictional setting, and it is not medical or public-health advice.