U.S. intelligence agencies warned Israel and NATO about the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in China last November, according to The Times of Israel, citing Channel 12 news of Israel:

“According to Channel 12 news, the US intelligence community became aware of the emerging disease in Wuhan in the second week of that month and drew up a classified document.

“Information on the disease outbreak was not in the public domain at that stage — and was known only apparently to the Chinese government.”

The American intelligence agencies also passed along the information to the Trump administration, “which did not deem it of interest,” the Times notes.

Channel 12 also reports that Israeli military officials discussed the possibility that COVID-19 could potentially spread to countries in the Middle East such as Israel. The Israeli Health Ministry was also made aware of the information but “nothing was done.”

Just last week, ABC News revealed that as early as November of 2019, U.S intelligence officials were alerting officials via a classified report complied by the National Center for Medical Intelligence. President Donald Trump has said he never read the report and no other administration officials acted on the early warnings, suggesting the the American government was negligent despite having advance warning of the novel coronavirus which has killed nearly 35,000 in the U.S. and almost 150,000 globally.

In recent days, rather than admit their own failures, the Trump administration has tried to suggest that COVID-19 began in a Chinese lab instead of a open-air market in Wuhan where exotic wild animals are sold as medicinal cures, CNN reports:

“An intelligence official familiar with the government analysis said a theory US intelligence officials are investigating is that the virus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China, and was accidentally released to the public. Other sources told CNN that US intelligence hasn’t been able to corroborate the theory but is trying to discern whether someone was infected in the lab through an accident or poor handling of materials and may have then infected others.”

Featured Image Via CNN