I’ve mentioned before that news of US intelligence reports from November 2019 about a disease outbreak in China are extremely difficult to square with the most exacting news reporting and genomic analyses of the virus itself. And yet, according to the Times of Israel, Israel’s Channel 12 reported today that the US Intelligence Community became aware of an “emerging disease” in the second week of November. The Trump administration “did not deem it of interest” but intelligence officials shared a classified report with NATO and Israel.
This certainly lines up with the ABC News report from a week ago, though it doesn’t say clearly whether it was the same report.
All the same points apply. This is not consistent with the best reporting about the origins of the virus and epidemic and also not consistent with the best science we have about when the outbreak started. Either this reporting is wrong or something very basic is wrong with the other reporting and the best science.
