The United States was warned about the coronavirus and how it was spreading throughout Wuhan, China, back in November.
It’s all come to light now. The people of the U.S. weren’t informed by the government that COVID-19 was already an issue that was plaguing China. In a November intelligence report regarding the virus, the U.S. military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) said that “analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” one of the sources of the NCMI’s report told ABC News.
In addition, the report said the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, and White House were briefed “multiple times” on the information, according to ABC News. Afterward, several briefings on the virus were held throughout the U.S. government, including the National Security Council, which was given a thorough and detailed outline of the disease’s damaging effects. CNN reports the intelligence report raised concerns for the U.S. military that is stationed in Asia.
These new findings only support previous reports that Donald Trump intentionally withheld information about the virus and downplayed the severity of a potential outbreak in the nation. However, U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said Sunday that he wasn’t sure if Pentagon received an intelligence assessment on the virus last November in China from the NCMI, CNN reports. The NCMI relays medical information about foreign health threats to the Defense Department. ⠀⠀⠀⠀
“But we have many people that 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,” said Esper on Sunday. Esper also said he didn’t know if there was a briefing on the virus provided to the National Security Council. “Yes, I’m not aware of that. … We got to be prepared for any type of contingency or any type of warfighting environment that we may be operating in. That’s why we’ve been poised and ready to support the whole of government effort.”
