Homophobic evangelicals take a break from lying about gay people to spread coronavirus misinformation
American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer has been spreading coronavirus misinformation. (Focal Point)
An anti-LGBT+ hate group has taken a short break from spreading lies about queer people to spread dangerous misinformation about coronavirus.
Bryan Fischer is the host of Focal Point, an American Family Radio (AFR) radio show by the American Family Association (AFA), a hate group committed to “combating the homosexual agenda”.
The radio host, designated an “extremist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center for his “long history of anti-gay activism”, falsely claimed on the March 23 episode of his show that people who are not showing symptoms of coronavirus are “not contagious”.
He said: “Now people that are asymptomatic — you might have heard this, asymptomatic transmission, people that don’t have the symptoms — they aren’t contagious.
“If people are asymptomatic, they don’t have the cough, they don’t have the respiratory issues, they don’t have a fever, they’re not contagious. And so they don’t need to be tested.”
CDC guidance contradicts Fischer’s coronavirus misinformation. It states: “Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
The homophobic radio host, who has blamed homosexuality for the holocaust, also promoted an unproven “cure” for coronavirus, describing it as a “vaccine” and a “silver bullet”.
The idea that the antimalarial drug chloroquine could be used to treat coronavirus was spread by Fox News, and this week endorsed by Donald Trump, but no trials have been completed to support the claim.
This month, Fischer joined the leagues of bigots using coronavirus to make ridiculous anti-LGBT+ statements, claiming an upside of the pandemic could be that children won’t be “indoctrinated” by drag queens while schools are closed.
He added that COVID-19 could create “a fantastic, once-in-a-generation opportunity to reverse some anti-family trends and move back toward the America we used to be”.
