The late Herman Cain’s Twitter account posted a claim that the novel coronavirus is “not as deadly” as “mainstream media” made it out to be—then deleted it early Monday, just weeks after the former presidential candidate and pizza mogul died of COVID-19. Cain died on July 30, weeks after he attended the infamous Donald Trump campaign rally in Tulsa without a face mask. The tweet linked to an article from conservative news site Western Journal, which a New York Times investigation found in 2019 was blacklisted from Apple News over doubts over its adherence to scientific norms. Some Twitter users have questioned the ethics of Cain’s account still bearing its blue “verified” check mark, which the social-media platform uses to signify “that an account of public interest is authentic.” Cain’s account is not in violation of Twitter’s rules, a spokesperson said, adding that Cain’s profile information and profile photo indicates who is managing the account.
