Kentucky state lawmaker under fire for comparing Dr Fauci to cult leader

A Kentucky state lawmaker has come under fire for comparing Dr Anthony Fauci to cult leader Jim Jones.

Republican Representative Regina Huff, who is the chair of the House Education Committee, took to Twitter to post a picture of Dr Fauci next to one of the Jonestown massacre leader.

The tweet included a caption under a picture of Jones that read, “I persuaded over 900 people to drink my Koolaid”, a reference to the cult members who died in a 1978 mass-murder suicide.

And under Dr Fauci the caption read, “Amateur.”

Alongside the image, Ms Huff wrote, “Some will cavil, they will not be able to help themselves,” before quickly deleting the post.

But a reporter for The Courier Journal newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky, obtained a screenshot of the tweet and reposted it.

“I did indeed delete the tweet because of the vulgarity within the comments,” Ms Huff said in another tweet, which was also later deleted.

She wrote that the original tweet was “representative of the efforts gearing up to mandating and controlling citizens.”

“Our students need to be in school, with parents deciding if they wear a mask,.”

In a third tweet she explained that her Jonestown reference was “not a reference to vaccinations at all,” but that it was about “mandates and efforts to control.”

And she added: “I don’t have any problem whatsoever with vaccinations. It is each individual’s right to choose to vaccinate or not.”

Kentucky has seen more than 473,000 cases of Covid-19 during the pandemic, and 7,347 deaths from the virus.

Ms Huff’s comments come as the state’s school districts are deciding about masks in schools, and if students who have been vaccinated will need to wear them.

The Independent has reached out to Ms Huff for comment.

Kentucky state health guidance currently recommends unvaccinated students wear a mask, but says districts can require masks for everyone if it makes it easier to enforce.

A total of 909 members of the Peoples Temple died from cyanide poisoning in the 1978 murder-suicide at a remote settlement in Guyana.