Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is receiving a one-week suspension from Twitter over a claim she made about the COVID-19 vaccines.
On Monday, Greene wrote, “The FDA should not approve the covid vaccines.”
“There are too many reports of infection [and] spread of [COVID-19] among vaccinated people,” she continued.
Finally, she said, “These vaccines are failing [and] do not reduce the spread of the virus.”
The FDA should not approve the covid vaccines.
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) August 10, 2021
There are too many reports of infection & spread of #COVID19 among vaccinated people.
These vaccines are failing & do not reduce the spread of the virus & neither do masks.
Vaccine mandates & passports violate individual freedoms.
Twitter applied a warning that said the tweet “may be misleading” and provided a link to “the latest on preventative measures and COVID-19.”
A spokesperson for Twitter said the tweet “was labeled in line with our COVID-19 misleading information policy. The account will be in read-only mode for a week due to repeated violations of the Twitter Rules.”
And as CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan pointed out, the company has a five-strike policy regarding violations of its policies that trigger certain actions against accounts. After a fourth strike, an account receives a one-week suspension, and after a fifth strike, the account is permanently suspended.
Twitter has a five strike policy on Covid misinformation. It looks like Greene is on her 4th strike. pic.twitter.com/J8di7mXfXF
— Donie O'Sullivan (@donie) August 10, 2021
As CNBC notes, the vaccines are not 100% effective at preventing infection. However, people who are fully vaccinated are “highly protected against severe infection, hospitalization, and death caused by the virus.”
In July, Greene was asked, “Do you feel any responsibility for keeping people in Georgia safe? You know, there are children, skinny people who have died of the coronavirus. Do you feel any responsibility?”
“You crack me up,” the Congresswoman responded. “You know what, I think people’s responsibility is their own.”
She has also refused to share whether she has been vaccinated as she claimed it would be a “violation of my HIPAA rights.”
However, as Forbes notes, it is not a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which created standards to prevent patients’ health information from being disclosed without their “consent or knowledge.”
That means it is not a violation of HIPAA to ask someone about their vaccination status.