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The United States was warned about the potential for a COVID-19 outbreak back in November 2019. According to a report from ABC News, U.S. intelligence officials began warning of the coronavirus pandemic and discussed “a cataclysmic event” was spreading in China’s Wuhan region.
The report was put together by the military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI).
“The timeline of the intel side of this may be further back than we’re discussing,” a source said of reports. “But this was definitely being briefed beginning at the end of November as something the military needed to take a posture on.”
We now know those warnings proved to be true, and the country was not prepared which led to the current situation where a majority of states are on lockdown or have stay-at-home orders.
From the report:
“Analysts concluded it could be a cataclysmic event,” one of the sources 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. Wednesday night, the Pentagon issued a statement denying the “product/assessment” existed.
The coronavirus mainly comes from animals and a majority of those who were infected early either worked at or frequently visited the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, according to The Guardian. The virus is similar to Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers).
The Wuhan coronavirus is transmitted from person to person through “droplet transmission.” That means an infected person can pass the virus by sneezing or coughing on another person as well as by direct contact.
While a majority of the cases have been detected in the United States and China — with more than 9,600 deaths in the United States which surpasses and nearly triples the death toll of the September 11 terrorist in New York City — it has now reached many countries around the world. It has also been confirmed in Italy, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and many other eastern countries.
