U.S. intelligence officials warned the White House that the coronavirus outbreak could turn into a “cataclysmic event” as far back as November, ABC News reports. Concerns about what came to be known as the novel coronavirus pandemic were reportedly outlined in a November intelligence report by the military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence, and then briefed to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon, and the White House. The report is said to have warned about a disease sweeping through China’s Wuhan region and posing a threat to the population. “Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” one of ABC’s sources said of the NCMI report. The report warned of a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia, and indicates that the Trump administration could have ramped up containment efforts far earlier to prepare for the impending crisis. The Pentagon, the National Security Council, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence each declined to comment on the ABC report.
