Former Trump advisor Michael Flynn says coronavirus a conspiracy to distract from election

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Donald Trump‘s former national security advisor Michael Flynn has claimed that coronavirus was a conspiracy to distract from last year’s election.

Mr Flynn, a retired General who is one of the most high-profile believers of QAnon conspiracy theories, made the claims in an interview in which he said he had taken hydroxychloroquin “for 30 years.”

“When you look around the world, why do all these place not have the problems that we keep getting beat over the head and shoulders on in this country when it comes to Covid?” said Mr Flynn.

“Why? Because everything, everything, and this is my truth, what I believe, everything is a distraction to what happened on 3 November.

“Everything we hear about Covid, and how Covid started before 3 November, it is all meant to control, it is all meant to gain control of a society to be able to force decisions on society, instead of allowing ‘we the people’ to make decisions.”

Mr Flynn also took a shot at the women’s movement and criticised feminists for getting vaccinated.

“And now with the vaccine as an example, whatever happened to the women’s movement out there, ‘My body, my choice.’

“Yet, they want to stick a needle in my arm and tell me that if you don’t have that needle you can’t get an id card, you can’t travel.

“Wait a second, I am as healthy as the next person, I have been taking hydroxychloroquin for 30 years.”

Hydroxychloroquin is routinely given to members of the US military serving in areas like Iraq and Afghanistan to prevent Malaria.

Mr Fynn plead guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with a Russian official but the Justice Department, under then attorney general William Barr, eventually dropped the case against him.

He was eventually pardoned by the one-term president of “any and all possible offenses” arising from the Mueller investigation, as well as any related grand jury proceedings.