Suppose that an asteroid such as Toutatis was on an actual collision course with earth and was expected to hit. Given that something that large would cause global destruction and wipe out a good part of the world’s population, do you you think we would be warned ahead of time? Or would the powers that be sort of keep that info to themselves to avoid a mass panic?
What would be the point to announce: “Sorry to have to tell you this, but in 24 hours about 3/4 of you will be dead and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it. Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye and good luck to you.”?
Obviously, there would be people other than the government who would try and get the word out about it (other than the usual “aliens told me that the world was ending tomorrow” fanatics), but I wonder if there would be any sort of official acknowledgement?