According to Dr Robert Malone a CIA officer [Michael Callahan [1]] , who was in Wuhan at the time called him on January 4, 2020 and said:

“Robert, you’ve got to get your team spun up because we’ve got a problem with this virus”

From this point Dr Malone made a “Threat Assessment” through following the epidemiological data and “decided to focus on repurposed drugs.” [ref @22:20 min]

Dr. Callahan escaped Wuhan surreptitiously by boat immediately prior to the lockdown of the region on 23 January 2020.” [2]