PerspectiveU.S. Intelligence Warned in November that Coronavirus Spreading in China Could Be “Cataclysmic Event”: Report
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that his administration could not have prepared for the pandemic because no government agency could have known that such an out-of-the-blue outbreak would happen. Justin Coleman writes that the president’s claims are false. The U.S. intelligence community began to warn about a global epidemic in November, saying that the outbreak in China could develop into a “cataclysmic event,” and policymakers, decisionmakers, and the National Security Council at the White House were repeatedly briefed on the issue. The coronavirus first appeared in the President’s Daily Brief (PDB) of intelligence matters — placed on the president’s desk every morning — in early January.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that his administration could not have prepared for the pandemic because no government agency could have known that such an out-of-the-blue outbreak would happen. But the facts contradict him.
Justin Coleman writes in The Hill that:
U.S. intelligence officials warned in November that the coronavirus spreading in China’s Hubei region could become a “cataclysmic event,” ABC News reported Wednesday.
The military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) documented concerns about the initial stages of the pandemic in an intelligence report, two officials familiar with the document told ABC News, which added that the document highlighted how the virus was disrupting life and business and threatened the population in the area.
The report highlights that officials had knowledge to begin acting against the coronavirus months before it struck the U.S., ABC News noted.
“Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” one of the sources told the network, who added that the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House were briefed “multiple times.”
After the NCMI report, policymakers, decisionmakers and the National Security Council at the White House were repeatedly briefed on the issue, a source added.
The coronavirus first appeared in the President’s Daily Brief of intelligence matters in early January, according to ABC News.
Those who worked on presidential briefings in Republican and Democratic administrations said the initial concerns would have gone through weeks of vetting and analysis before appearing in the daily brief.
