Soldotna Republican Rep. Ron Gillham shared a post on his personal Facebook last week that likened those who provide information about COVID-19 vaccines to Nazis who were executed for war crimes after World War II.
The post, originally reported by the Peninsula Clarion Tuesday, showed a photo of a public hanging. Under the photo, it said “Members of the Media who lied and misled the German People were executed, right along with Medical Doctors and Nurses who participated in medical experiments using living people as guinea pigs. Those who forget the past are condemned to relive it.”
Above the photo, the text reads “Still so sure you want to try to force me to get the experimental vaccination?”
Facebook flagged and hid the post for containing factual inaccuracies. The fact checking site Agence-France Presse said the claims made under the photo are untrue. It said the public hanging in the photo was not from the Nuremberg Trials and that only one member of the media was executed during that time.
Gillham removed the post after the Clarion published its story.
He told the Anchorage Daily News that he “forwarded a post that I believed was a historical incident. That was it.” He also told the Daily News he thinks people in the media should be held accountable for what they post but that he’s not an advocate for violence.
He told Alaska Public Media earlier this year he wouldn’t get the COVID-19 vaccine.
