'Cataclysmic Event': Intelligence Report Warned Of Coronavirus In November

A report from U.S. intelligence officials circulated through the White House and the Pentagon as far back as November had warned of the danger posed by the spread of the novel coronavirus. Assembled from satellite images and communication intercepts, the report demonstrated a clear awareness of the outbreak in China’s Wuhan region in the fall.

ABC News spoke with four individuals who are familiar with the report written by the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), a subset of the Pentagon. They described the report as warning that the spreading coronavirus outbreak in China “could be a cataclysmic event” and showed that the Chinese government was aware that the disease was not under control.

One source said that the intelligence contained in the report was shared internally in late November, but “the timeline of the intel side of this may be further back than we’re discussing.” Multiple briefings on the report were given to the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Joint Staff and the White House during this period.

Eventually, the key details of the report made its way to the President’s Daily Brief in early January. For a matter to be included in this briefing, it would have to be thoroughly vetted by officials in the intelligence community and leaders of both parties.

“But this was definitely being briefed beginning at the end of November as something the military needed to take a posture on,” one source said.

When asked about the report on ABC’s This Week, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper said that he was not aware about intelligence briefings on the coronavirus last year.

While the existence of the report was previously rumored, this is the first time insider sources have described its contents and how widely it was circulated. This serves to complicate the mixed narratives coming out of the White House in which President Donald Trump has both claimed that he was taken by surprised by the pandemic and that he took early action to respond to the coming crisis.

Trump and his administration have faced continued criticism over his response to the COVID-19 outbreak, with some accusing him of not taking action to minimize the crisis in advance.