Trump’s pick for Arizona secretary of state suggested Covid didn’t exist and called vaccine a ‘crime against humanity’

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By Drew Myers, Em Steck and Andrew Kaczynski, CNN

Updated 5:41 PM ET, Wed February 16, 2022

(CNN)Mark Finchem, the Arizona secretary of state candidate backed by former President Donald Trump, spread dangerous misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic on social media, calling the vaccine a “crime against humanity,” implying it was a “bio-weapon” and sharing an article last August that suggested Covid-19 did not exist in the Canadian province of Alberta.

A CNN KFile review of Finchem’s social media postings on platforms popular with the extreme right wing found that he repeatedly promoted anti-vaccine rhetoric and other false claims about possible Covid-19 treatments, the efficacy of mask-wearing and the severity of the virus.

In August 2021, Finchem shared a story riddled with misinformation on the coronavirus and vaccine on the platform Gab — a social media network popular with conservatives, the alt-right and some extremists — writing, “It ain’t a vaccine!!! Call it what it is, a crime against humanity.”

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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/16/politics/trump-mark-finchem-arizona-secetary-state-kfile/index.html