White House faces heightened scrutiny over media reports of coronavirus intelligence in November
- Media reports say US intelligence started tracking an illness in China in November
- The National Centre for Medical Intelligence denies the existence of a coronavirus-related assessment that month
US media reports that American intelligence officials had started tracking in November a rapidly spreading illness in China – now known as the Covid-19 pandemic – have raised questions about what and when the White House knew about the gathering threat.
CNN and ABC reported on Wednesday that an agency of the US defence department’s intelligence arm began holding meetings about the illness in China more than a month before Beijing notified the World Health Organisation on December 31 of the spreading contagion.
The National Centre for Medical Intelligence (NCMI) tracked details of the apparent epidemic through “analysis of wire and computer intercepts, coupled with satellite images,” according to ABC.
The NCMI issued a rare public statement just hours after the ABC and CNN reports, denying the reported time frame.
“As a matter of practice, the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters,” NCMI director Colonel R. Shane Day said in a statement.