Anti-Vax Swastika Retweet Leads To Criticism Of Fairfield RTM Rep

FAIRFIELD, CT — An incumbent candidate for Fairfield Representative Town Meeting is under fire just days before the Nov. 2 election after she retweeted a meme that drew a parallel between the coronavirus vaccine rollout and Nazi Germany.

The meme, retweeted by District 6 representative Hannah Gale, a Republican, showed a swastika below the year 1941 next to a similar image in which the arms of the swastika were replaced by syringes and the year was changed to 2021. Gale said she retweeted the meme at least two months ago, has since deleted it and apologized, and was not endorsing the content of the meme by retweeting it.

“I retweeted it because I thought it was shocking,” she said. “It was not that I was endorsing that opinion.”

Nevertheless, over the weekend, a resident sent an email, addressing all 40 members of the town meeting, and referring to Gale’s retweet as “inappropriate,” “hateful” and “despicable.”

“Endorsed Republican RTM candidate Hannah Gale has been vocally and staunchly anti-vaccine and anti-mask,” the Fairfield Democratic Town Committee said in a post Friday on Patch. “Gale regularly shares vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories online, including those calling COVID vaccines ‘forced experiments,’ and comparing the Biden Administration to Hitler's Nazi Germany.”

Gale posted an apology tweet Monday.

“I apologize from the bottom of my heart if anyone felt that my retweets were a desecration to the memory of those were murdered by the Nazi government,” Gale, who is Jewish, said in the tweet. “My intention was to be vigilant to the promise to never allow fascism to creep into the (world) again. Dehumanization is stealthy.”

Gale, a naturopathic physician and acupuncturist, has long been a vocal supporter of vaccine choice and switched political parties in late 2020 over state Democrats’ handling of legislation regarding religious vaccine exemption. She is against vaccine requirements, she said Tuesday, because she has patients with autoimmune diseases who shouldn’t be vaccinated.

“They are being victimized by these mandates,” she said.

According to the Global Autoimmune Institute, the benefit of coronavirus vaccines outweighs the risk of side effects for people with autoimmune diseases.

Gale said she is not anti-mask or anti-vaccine, and that she wears face masks regularly at work.

“I am not anti-vaccine, I think that we need to look at the entire situation,” she said. “I am pro religious exemption.”

The Fairfield Republican Town Committee in a prepared statement Tuesday distanced itself from Gale’s retweet.

“Fairfield Republicans unequivocally condemn the use of Nazi symbols,” Chairman Alex Plitsas said in the statement provided to Patch via text. “Representative Gale does not speak for the local Republican party, the Republican RTM caucus, or the RTM as whole where she serves as a member, her actions were her own. Representative Gale recently issued a written apology to both the Republican and Democrat caucus for retweeting this offensive symbol.”