The Pentagon and intelligence community repeatedly denied the existence of an intelligence report from the Defense Intelligence Agency’s National Center for Medical Intelligence in November warning about a possibly “cataclysmic” novel coronavirus outbreak in China.

ABC News reported on Wednesday that “as far back as late November” U.S. intelligence officials were sounding the alarm that a contagion was “sweeping through China’s Wuhan region” and “posing a threat to the population,” citing unnamed sources. The outlet said concerns were laid out in a November intelligence report compiled by the DIA’s NCMI.

The findings from analysts concluding it could be a "cataclysmic event," as one source said, made its way across the government, including the National Security Council and the Pentagon’s Joint Staff, in the weeks that followed.

The NCMI, an intelligence outfit specializing in tracking global health challenges that could impact the safety of U.S. troops stationed around the world, issued a rare denial directed at the reporting Wednesday night.

“As a matter of practice, the National Center for Medical Intelligence does not comment publicly on specific intelligence matters. However, in the interest of transparency during this current public health crisis, we can confirm that media reporting about the existence/release of a National Center for Medical Intelligence Coronavirus-related product/assessment in November of 2019 is not correct,” said Col. R. Shane Day, the director of the NCMI. “No such NCMI product exists.”

The CIA pointed the Washington Examiner to the Pentagon’s statement.

CNN released its own piece on Wednesday, claiming U.S. spy agencies tracked the coronavirus “as early as November." A defense official also told CNN no such NCMI report existed. The Twitter account for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence tweeted at CNN Thursday evening: "As we told CNN earlier today, this story contains inaccurate information."

The ABC News report said NCMI's supposed findings “raised alarms” because a widespread infectious disease “would pose a serious threat to U.S. forces in Asia.” The Pentagon’s top brass shot the story down Thursday morning.

“Concerning the intelligence reports, first time I saw this was when I read it in the news, but I can tell you that we went back and did a deep dive into everything we could find,” Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General John Hyten told reporters, adding, “We went back and looked at everything in November and December. The first indications we had were reports out of China in late December that were in the public forum. And the first intel reports I saw were in January.”

After the supposed intelligence document was published, the sources for ABC News claimed “other intelligence community bulletins began circulating” near the end of November, concluding that the Chinese Communist Party knew the coronavirus was “out of control” even as it concealed this from the world.

This would seem to echo a Washington Post report from March, which said the intelligence community was warning in January and February that the Chinese government was minimizing the outbreak's severity. A report from Bloomberg in April said spy agencies believe China is still lying.

President Trump was asked about the ABC News article during Wednesday’s White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing.

“When I learned about the gravity of it was sometime just prior to closing the country to China,” Trump said. “And when we closed up the flights coming in from China and various other elements — and then, as you know, we closed up to Europe. So, I don’t know exactly, but I’d like to see the information."

The Trump administration placed limitations on travel to and from China at the end of January, despite repeated arguments from the World Health Organization that “there is no reason” for any travel bans.

At the end of February, Trump implemented restrictions on travel to and from Iran and announced a European travel ban in March.

George Stephanopoulos of ABC’s This Week asked Defense Secretary Mark Esper whether the Pentagon received an intelligence assessment on the COVID outbreak in China in November from NCMI.

“Oh, I can't recall, George, but we have many people that watch this closely,” Esper said. “We have the premiere infectious disease research institute in America within the United States Army.”

Esper said the United States activated its global pandemic response on Feb. 1.

“Reportedly, this assessment was done in November, and it was briefed to the NSC in early December to assess the impact on military readiness,” Stephanopoulos said. “So, you would have known if they were briefed to the National Security Council in December, wouldn’t you?”

Esper replied, “Yes. I’m not aware of that.”

An intelligence report as early as November could be surprising, since a Lancet study said the first confirmed case wasn’t until Dec. 1. Wei Guixian, among the earliest COVID-19 patients, began to feel sick on Dec. 10. It is possible, however, that the infection was spreading in November.

The South China Post reviewed purported Chinese government documents, which suggested a man contracted the disease as early as Nov. 17. China notified WHO of a pneumonia-like disease with an unknown cause on Dec. 31.

The WHO concluded the COVID-19 virus first appeared in China, and an investigative report in February found “early cases identified in Wuhan are believed to have acquired infection from a zoonotic source” in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market.

There is well-documented evidence that China tried to cover up the spread of the coronavirus, muzzled whistleblowers, misled the WHO, and attempted to block outside health experts. At least one study indicated that if the Chinese government had acted more quickly, the coronavirus’s global spread would have been greatly reduced.

Reports show Chinese doctors knew around late December and early January that human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus was almost certainly occurring. Yet the WHO tweeted on Jan. 14 that “preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission.”

As of Thursday evening, there were more than 1.58 million confirmed coronavirus cases around the world and more than 94,000 deaths tied to the infection, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. In the U.S., there were more than 454,000 cases, which have resulted in more than 16,200 deaths.