From the Liveblog of
Thursday, April 16, 2020
TV: US intelligence alerted Israel of coronavirus in mid-November
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleUS intelligence agencies alerted Israel to the dangers posed by the coronavirus outbreak in China in November, Channel 12 reports.
According to the report, the US intelligence community became aware of the emerging disease in Wuhan in the second week of November and drew up a classified document.
Information on the disease outbreak was not in the public domain at this stage — and was known only apparently to the Chinese government.
US intelligence informed the Trump Administration “which did not deem it of interest,” the report says.
The Americans also decided to update two allies with this classified document: NATO and Israel, specifically the IDF.
The network says Israeli military officials later in November discussed the possibility of the spread of the virus to the region.
“Still in November, the IDF held a first discussion regarding what impact this unknown disease would have were it to reach the Middle East. How would we be affected? How would it affect our neighbors? As you can imagine, the information [on the virus outbreak in China] did not remain solely with the IDF. It reached Israel’s decision makers and the Health Ministry.”
In the Health Ministry “nothing was done,” the report says.
The Times of Israel Community.