By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
The coronavirus outbreak that is rapidly sweeping across America, claiming lives and wrecking the economy, should have been no surprise to the Trump administration because of warnings about the contagion as far back as November.
The U.S. military’s National Center for Medical Intelligence issued a report in November that warned about an out-of-control virus spreading across China’s Wuhan region, ABC News reports, citing officials familiar with the document.
The report, which relied on wire and computer intercepts and satellite images, warned that U.S. forces in Asia were at risk.
“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.
But on Jan. 22, Trump’s first comments about the virus were dismissive of its threat to the U.S. In a CNBC interview, Trump was asked, “Are there worries about a pandemic at this point?”
The president responded, “No. Not at all. And we have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”
