Sen. Sylvia Allen’s Dangerous COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories

For Immediate Release

Contact: Jennifer Guzman, Jenny@ProgressNowArizona.org

Phoenix – Sen. Sylvia Allen, nationally infamous for her derogatory statements, recently pushed out more offensive and inappropriate conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 on her public Facebook account. Sen. Allen shared claims about COVID-19 being a “deep state conspiracy” as well as a virus “harvested by an individual in Iran in 2009.” Additionally, the claims also pushed for COVID-19 treatment using a pill that has not been federally authorized for use. None of these claims have been confirmed, and they derived from a video over an hour long that does not cite official sources for any of these obscure claims. Therefore, making them nothing but conspiracy theories intended to incite fear and paranoia into communities already dealing with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“It is deeply irresponsible for a sitting senator, especially the Chair of the Senate Education Committee to spread unsupported conspiracy theories. Legislators like Sylvia Allen should be investing their time and resources into staying up to date with real accurate information in order to push for policies and solutions for communities affected by this pandemic. Not only does Allen owe her constituents and colleagues an apology for supporting such ridiculous and unfounded claims, but Allen should be attempting to instead provide solutions for the repercussions from the pandemic. This is not a joke, especially when over 80,000 individuals have died from the virus in such a short amount of time. It’s disappointing that Sen. Sylvia Allen is treating this as fuel for conspiracy theories instead of as a real issue.” said Jenny Guzman, Legislative Communications Coordinator for Progress Now Arizona.