Former CIA Officer Who Called COVID a ‘Hoax’ Dies From Virus

Robert David Steele, a former CIA officer who was vocal about his belief that COVID-19 was a hoax, has died of the virus. He was 69.

Streamer Mark Tassi announced Steele’s death Sunday, saying recently, he “had gotten very sick.”

In his final blog post on Aug. 17, Steele wrote, “I will not take the vaccination, though I did test positive for whatever they’re calling ‘COVID’ today, but the bottom line is that my lungs are not functioning.”

Steele, who was also a supporter of QAnon conspiracy theories, included a hospital selfie that showed him wearing a breathing mask, but insisted he would be fine.

“The good news is that I will survive with a few days off,” he wrote. “I should be back up and at least functional soon. This is been a near death experience, very much like a new death experience the whole country is going through right now. We will never be the same because now we know that we’ve all been lied to about everything.  But, now we also know that we can trust each other. I’m alive today because I had a network that put me into a good hospital in Florida.”

Tassi called the death “suspicious” and suggested that powerful people put Steele on a ventilator to make Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis look bad.

In a Vice interview last year, Steele claimed he was the first person to call COVID a “hoax.” According to the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, he held anti-Semitic beliefs and according to Maine Public, he claimed NASA was operating a child slave colony on Mars.