# The gamma globulin shot

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The gamma globulin shot," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-gamma-globulin-shot/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The yellow fever inoculation John Kiriakou says every CIA officer took from his hiring through about 2000 — a gamma globulin injection he compares to having maple syrup put into the buttock, which raised a knot the size of a tennis ball and earned an hour of paid administrative time to walk it out around the compound.*

- **Purpose:** Yellow fever
- **In force:** From Kiriakou's joining until about 2000
- **Kiriakou's description:** "Like injecting maple syrup in your butt"
- **The knot:** The size of a tennis ball
- **Dispensation:** An hour walking the compound to stretch the glutes
- **Day after:** Sick leave not charged

**The gamma globulin shot** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of the inoculation routine imposed on [CIA](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia) officers travelling overseas, given in answer to a viewer who asked whether the vaccination rules for deployments were as strict as reported.

## The injection

Kiriakou dates the practice from his own arrival to the turn of the century. *"all of us Oh my god, you know when I first joined the CIA all the way up until like 2000. So, for that whole decade for yellow fever, you had to get a gamma globulin shot."*[1]

The description is physical rather than clinical. *"it was like injecting maple syrup in your butt, and it would make this knot the size of a tennis ball."*[1]

## The dispensation

What interests Kiriakou is that the agency built the side effect into its own timekeeping. *"they would give you dispensation to walk around the compound for an hour and stretch out your glutes so you didn't get that giant ball. It was like an hour of administrative time to work out that ball of gamma globulin that's pooling in your butt."*[1]

A second accommodation covered the aftermath. *"another thing too is you'd get all these shots the same day, and the next day you're sick as a dog. And so, we would get that day off without it counting against your sick leave."*[2]

## The frequency

Kiriakou attributes the volume of injections to his own posting pattern, in a formulation he attributes to Donald Trump rather than to himself: *"I only went to not only, but I almost exclusively went to um, the countries as Donald Trump called them. And so, uh, so I was getting shots right, left, and center every time I'd go."*[2]

The limits of the protection this bought are the subject of [typhoid fever in Bangkok](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/typhoid-fever-in-bangkok).

## See also

- [Typhoid Fever In Bangkok](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/typhoid-fever-in-bangkok)
- [Kiriakou on travel](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-on-travel)
- [Central Intelligence Agency](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cia)

## Sources

1. Bad Bunny, Epstein Files, and more! (2026-02-11), at 07:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfFvuCYmaXs&t=464s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-11-deprogram-ted-rall-bad-bunny-epstein-files-and-more/
2. Bad Bunny, Epstein Files, and more! (2026-02-11), at 08:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfFvuCYmaXs&t=496s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-11-deprogram-ted-rall-bad-bunny-epstein-files-and-more/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-gamma-globulin-shot/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt