Marjorie Taylor Greene got into an argument with the outgoing Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr Rochelle Walensky, at one point telling the public health leader, “I don’t want my staff educated”.
The Georgia Republican went off on Dr Walensky, who’s set to leave her post on 30 June, during a House Oversight Committee hearing regarding the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic on Tuesday.
Ms Greene asked the director about the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), saying that “in 2021, Covid-19 reports skyrocketed to number one at 728,829 reports. And the numbers kept growing and growing and growing on the VAERS report”.
“The amount of miscarriages and stillbirths that increased drastically due to your advice to get vaccinated,” she suggested.
The viral claim that the Covid-19 vaccine is unsafe during pregnancy has been found to be false.
“But my question for you today, Dr Walensky, is now that you’re going to be leaving the CDC pretty soon, what job are you going to take?” Ms Greene went on. “Are you going to be on the board of either Pfizer or Moderna? Because you’ve done one hell of a job at making sure that they’ve made a lot of money.”
Dr Walensky noted that the CDC isn’t in charge of buying vaccines.
“I do want to talk a minute about the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System,” she said. “It is intended to have an over-reporting ... Any adverse event, if you got hit by a truck after you got your vaccine, that was reported to the vaccine adverse event reporting system.”
“You did nothing about that and continue to push vaccines,” Ms Greene went on.
“We review all of the things that come into the vaccine adverse event reporting system,” Dr Walensky said. “I’d be happy to have our staff educate your staff on the work.”
“I don’t want my staff educated!” Ms Greene replied. “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” that the vaccine is “safe and effective.”
Studies have repeatedly found that the Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective for people of all ages.
Twitter users were quick to mock Ms Greene for rejecting the learning opportunity for her staff.
“Ain’t no way I’ll let you give them any of that gobbledegook book learnin,” Lincoln Project advisor Jeff Timmer tweeted.
A number of Twitter users referenced former President Donald Trump saying “I love the poorly educated” after winning the Nevada GOP caucus in 2016 as he called out the demographics who supported him.
“Why? Why would anyone want this woman representing them?” one user said.
“Of course Marge doesn’t want to have her staff educated. They’d all leave!” Diane Bernaerts said.
“I definitely have my qualms with the ... CDC Director but @RepMTG and her lies and disinformation campaign against Covid has cost lives. She doesn’t want to be educated which should surprise NO ONE!” Skyleigh Heinen added.
“Every time MTG talks a thousand people die of embarrassment by proxy,” one Twitter user wrote.
“‘I don’t want my staff educated’ kind of sums up her entire political career, am I right?” Kim Chernecky said.
“And there it is, folks, the reason Trump & his #FascistGOP movement love the uneducated! Facts & truth & are like kryptonite to their pathetic lies/ And all they’ve got are lies & Fox/Sinclair/Newsmax to amplify them!!” Jonathan Greenberg wrote.
