First virus mission doesn't trigger the right message to your commander

[This is my first time playing IG, so let me know if this is wrong.]

Apparently, all the FAQs online say that as soon as New Caroline gets infected with a virus for the first time, you should contact your commander and let them know. However, instead of that being available, an "ask for reinforcements" message is triggered instead. I played quite a bit past this, and it seemed to cause the game to skip the next mission entirely (the escort mission); I didn't actually get the option to tell my commander until, in the second virus triggering, I intentionally let a ship through. Then the planetary leader complained that I had been lax, and it finally triggered my ability to contact my commander to talk about the viruses.

Now: was the original behavior a bug, or is this an unintentional change, or am I just confused? :)