Republican Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's recent hearing discussions with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky indicated an unwillingness to have an informed, educated staff.
Which seems appropriate considering their bosses history of half-truths and outright lies.
During a discussion of the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine reporting procedures, Greene shut Walensky down as she tried to explain the intricacies of the system, bellowing at the Director "I don't want my staff educated" about vaccines.
Walensky's "education" was impairing Greene's actual purpose, which seemed to be to humiliate Walensky while trying to prove the COVID-19 vaccine was killing everyone, including unborn children.
The anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist turned Georgia GOP Representative can be seen in the video below:
\u201cWalensky: I\u2019d be happy to have our staff educate your staff \nGreene: I don\u2019t want my staff educated\u2026\u201d— Acyn (@Acyn) 1686673911
Greene, like many far-right conspiracy theorists, twisted data from the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Report System, or VAERS, to assert the vaccine killed most of the people who have taken it and caused stillbirths and miscarriages in pregnant women.
None of that is true.
As Walensky explained, the VAERS system compiles "any event" that occurs medically in a vaccinated person.
As she told Greene:
"If you got hit by a truck after you got your vaccine, that was reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Report System."
"We at CDC...comb through every single one of them to review the medical charts and to see if they are related."
The point being, of course, that vaccines don't cause you to be hit by a truck so Greene's analysis is misguided at best, deliberately untruthful manipulation at worst.
But Greene was undeterred by facts, accusing Walensky of having done "nothing about that" and continuing to push vaccines.
When Walensky replied she'd be "happy to have our staff educate your staff on the matter," Greene shot back:
"I don’t want my staff educated."
"You should educate the American people about what you’ve done of 1.5 million reports because they feel like you’ve done nothing and continue to say ‘safe and effective.'"
Greene also made sure to make a transphobic remark, sniffing about the CDC's use of the phrase "pregnant people" instead of pregnant "women."
She then accused Walensky of stepping down from the CDC to go work for Pfizer or Moderna, who she accused of helping "make a hell of a lot of money" off of the pandemic.
Greene's misinformed, conspiracy theory rhetoric found few fans outside of fellow conspiracy theorists on Twitter.
\u201c"Ain't no way I'll let you give them any of that gobbledegook book learnin." - MTG\u201d— Jeff Timmer (@Jeff Timmer) 1686674810
\u201c@Acyn I'm not trying to diminish those who had adverse effects but there are 336 million American citizens and she's talking about 1.5 million. That's a decent statistic.\u201d— Acyn (@Acyn) 1686673911
\u201c@cspan @CDCDirector @RepMTG MTG is just so painfully awful. Just rambles and rambles about crazy conspiracies with no correlation data at all\u201d— CSPAN (@CSPAN) 1686690562
\u201c@Acyn\u201d— Acyn (@Acyn) 1686673911
\u201c@cspan @CDCDirector @RepMTG "I don't want my staff educated."\n\nSo Greene told the truth for once in her life.\u201d— CSPAN (@CSPAN) 1686690562
\u201cIf Marjorie Taylor Greene's staff were educated, they'd be looking for a new job. And when they don't like the results of their research, it becomes "fake news". No one loves the poorly educated more than Republicans.\u201d— Nita Cosby (@Nita Cosby) 1686773910
\u201cWhy? Why would anyone want this woman representing them?\u201d— Andrea R MD (@Andrea R MD) 1686678672
\u201c@cspan @CDCDirector @RepMTG "I don't want my staff educated." Sounds about right...\u201d— CSPAN (@CSPAN) 1686690562
\u201c@Acyn Greene doesn't care enough to listen to the CDC's answers about the scientific findings wrt COVID vaccines. \nThis is a political stunt, not a fact-finding investigation.\nShameful because there's a lot to learn, understand, and move forward on improving vaccines.\u201d— Acyn (@Acyn) 1686673911
Walensky announced she will be leaving the CDC as of June 30.
