(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."
Finchem also shared an image last August falsely claiming that a province in Canada had lifted its Covid protocols because "they can't produce an isolated sample of SARS-CoV-2 to prove covid exists to back their mandates."
In July 2021, Finchem shared an article from a conspiracy website frequented by the far right that falsely says "the life expectancy of all who have taken the [vaccine] is only 2 years," because it alters human blood cells, claims that have been thoroughly debunked.
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