Anticipating COVID-19: A view from the intelligence community

Though it may seem as though our lives were completely changed overnight by the onset of the pandemic, the reality is there was a crescendo to the outbreak. The focus is now on reducing the number of infections and deaths until a vaccine is widely available, but questions remain regarding which parts of government knew what when, and whether that knowledge could have had a measurable impact on the course of the pandemic.  

On October 16, the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings hosted an event exploring how well the intelligence community anticipated the pandemic. Senior Fellow Bruce Riedel joined Chris Whipple for a conversation on this question, as well as on Whipple’s new book “The Spymasters: How the CIA Directors Shape History and the Future.”