U.S. intelligence officials warned as far back as November that a contagious disease was spreading through China’s Wuhan region, according to a new report.
Two officials familiar with the documents told ABC News the military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence expressed concerns about the coronavirus in a November intelligence report, which included an analysis of wire and computer intercepts and satellite images.
“Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” a source said of the NCMI’s report. “It was then briefed multiple times to” the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, and the White House.
The sources said officials throughout the federal government, including the National Security Council and the White House, were repeatedly briefed on the matter after the November warning.
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An analysis appeared in the president’s daily brief in early January, sources said. It’s typical for information to undergo weeks of vetting before it appears in the presidential briefing.
“The timeline of the intel side of this may be further back than we’re discussing,” a source said of preliminary reports from Wuhan. “But this was definitely being briefed beginning at the end of November as something the military needed to take a posture on.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Sunday that he could not recall if he was warned that the epidemic in China was spiraling out of control in November.
“We have many people who watch this closely. We have the premier infectious disease research institute in America, within the United States Army. So, our people who work these issues directly watch this all the time,” he said.
Critics have accused President Trump of not taking the threat of the pandemic seriously. Trump moved to restrict air travel with China in late January, but also spent weeks downplaying the virus.
