Alaska lawmaker says he meant ‘nothing’ by shared post

KENAI, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska state legislator shared on social media a post that likened members of the media and medical professionals who provide information about COVID-19 vaccines to Nazis who were executed for war crimes, though the Soldotna Republican said he meant “nothing” by it.

Rep. Ron Gillham told the Peninsula Clarion he “just shared it. It’s just one of those things that comes around and you just send it around.”

Gillham was elected in November to a House seat that had been held by Republican Gary Knopp, who died in a plane crash last summer. A message seeking comment from Gillham by The Associated Press was left with his office Wednesday.

The photo referenced in the post Gillham shared but has since taken down depicted the execution of Germans convicted of war crimes in post-Holocaust Kiev, Ukraine, in 1946, according to an article in the Project MUSE, a platform for scholarly journals, the Clarion reported.

Gillham told Alaska Public Media earlier this year he would not get a COVID-19 vaccine.

“I don’t get the flu shot. If I get sick I’ll take an aspirin,” he said. “I had the COVID. I lost my sense of smell and taste. That’s it. Never got sick.”