A top White House official on Sunday likened China's handling of the coronavirus outbreak to the Soviet Union's cover-up of the meltdown at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986. National security adviser Robert O'Brien said Beijing knew what was happening with the virus, which originated in Wuhan, from November but lied to the World Health Organization and prevented outside experts from accessing information. The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, in the former Soviet republic of Ukraine, released radioactive nuclear material that killed dozens of people within weeks and forced tens of thousands to flee.