A newly unclassified CIA summary released by Sen. Rand Paul shows that on May 7, 2020, Pfizer board member and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told the CIA that national COVID seroprevalence was about 20–25%, far higher than what he was saying in public.
The meeting was led by CIA Chief Operating Officer Andy Makridis, with Gottlieb participating as a member of the CIA’s External Advisory Board. According to the agency’s own summary, Gottlieb “discounts the 2 major studies from Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties showing high seroprevalence” and estimated that national seroprevalence was about 20–25%, which he said was insufficient to achieve herd immunity given the virus’s estimated transmission rate.
The Stanford/Santa Clara study Gottlieb dismissed had put seroprevalence at 2.8% in April 2020. On April 17, Gottlieb tweeted the national rate was about 5% and called Santa Clara a hotspot. On Aug. 16, 2020, he told CBS Face the Nation the national rate was only 8%.
Paul released the document Aug. 29, 2026, after it had been classified more than six years. The CIA summary is part of a Fauci-related document dump.
