U.S. officials warned of a contagion sweeping through Wuhan, China in late November.
Word of the warning came in an ABC News report on Wednesday’s “Good Morning America.”
The network news, attributing the details to sources, said the information came in a November intelligence report by the military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence.
The report was sparked by an analysis of computer and wire intercepts, along with satellite images. Concerns were raised because an out-of-control disease could pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia, according to ABC News.
"Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event," one of the sources said of the NCMI report. "It was then briefed multiple times" to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s Joint Staff and the White House.
The network news said the sources told of repeated briefings through December for decision-makers across the federal government, along with the National Security Council at the White House.
It also told of the problem in the President’s Daily Brief on intelligence issued in early January, according to ABC News.
"The timeline of the intel side of this may be further back than we’re discussing," the source said. "But this was definitely being briefed beginning at the end of November as something the military needed to take a posture on."
News of the warning came after a Tuesday New York Times report that said Peter Navarro, President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, had warned the administration in late January that the coronavirus outbreak could put millions of Americans at risk.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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