Far-right Congresswoman and prominent conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was suspended on Twitter for 12 hours this week after spreading more false information about the vaccines, which have been proven safe and effective at slowing the spread of the virus that's killed over 600 thousand Americans.
After being stripped of her committee assignments earlier this year for her prior support of deranged conspiracy theories, Greene continues to spread baseless conspiracy theories that the virus was developed by China as a bioweapon that was funded by National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director, Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Greene has encouraged seniors—who are most vulnerable to the virus—to resist taking the vaccine. She's also falsely suggested that over 12 thousand people have died from the vaccine, citing the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
While VAERS does indicate thousands of people have died at some point after taking the vaccine in the months that it's been available, this doesn't suggest that vaccines were the cause of death, simply that the person died at some point after receiving a vaccine. Greene also doesn't note that the vaccine was first made available to people over 65, who are much more likely to die of natural causes. What's more, some 162 million people in the United States are fully vaccinated, meaning 0.007% of those people have died after taking the vaccine (again, this does not suggest these deaths were caused by the vaccine).
In Georgia's 14th District, which Greene represents, 29 percent of residents are fully vaccinated—27 points below the national average. More than 1400 people in Greene's district have died—the second highest in the state.
Yet Greene continues to encourage vaccine skepticism and falsely claims that young people and non-obese people are practically immune to the virus.
During a press conference regarding her Twitter suspension, Greene was asked by the Atlanta Journal Constitution's Tia Mitchell if she felt any responsibility for virus deaths in her district.
She laughed.
Greene responded:
"Tia, you crack me up. I think people's responsibility is their own, to read the information, and it's everywhere. ... I believe in people's own individual responsibility to read, to find out, and to make their own decision."
Greene didn't acknowledge that she's repeatedly presented lies about the virus as credible information, eagerly sowed distrust of reliable data, and repeatedly sought to undermine pandemic guidelines recommended by experts—all of which have likely impacted the perception of the virus's severity among her constituents and supporters.
Her laughter upon hearing of the virus deaths was unnerving to social media users.
They want her out of Congress.
Greene still enjoys popularity within the Republican party.
Keith Pedersen/Facebook
