You'd hope so; the virus was international news in January. I found an old newspaper just yesterday from January with an article titled something like "Mysterious Lung Disease in Wuhan".<p>SARS, MERS, Ebola and others had already been dealt with successfully so presumably the real surprise was the asymptomatic infections. COVID-19 outbreaks don't look so scary until the body bags start to run out and it becomes apparent that the situation is out of control.
Wuhan is a major city very well integrated into the world at large. It is a transport and industrial hub with many major Western companies, Western expats, and Western diplomatic representations, including a US consulate.<p>This makes it pretty clear that Western intelligence knew what was going on in real time at least as well as the local people and perhaps as well as the Chinese central government.<p>But, both because the Western struggle against China and political games to deflect criticism the facts are distorted and spun, if not ignored, on all sides.