Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) insists that people bear their own responsibility to keep themselves safe from COVID-19.
During a press conference on Tuesday, the Georgia Congresswoman was asked by Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Tia Mitchell, “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?”
Greene burst into laughter, then responded, “Tia, you crack me up.”
“You know what, I think people’s responsibility is their own,” she added.
Watch the video below:
Reporter: There are children, skinny people who have died of the coronavirus…
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 20, 2021
Greene: *laughs* pic.twitter.com/bunG07Hg4e
https://twitter.com/TIAreports/status/1417605813997346817
Mitchell tweeted that she asked the question “after listening to Rep. Greene downplay the impact of COVID-19 on young people [and] those who aren’t obese.”
During that press conference, Greene also refused to share whether she has been vaccinated against the virus, “Well, your first question is a violation of my HIPAA rights. You see, with HIPAA rights, we don’t have to reveal our medical records, and that also involves our vaccine records.”
Question: Have you yourself been vaccinated?
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 20, 2021
Greene: Your first question is a violation of my HIPAA rights pic.twitter.com/JuHDovV2mC
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.
Greene has previously claimed that it is a violation of the health law to ask her about her vaccination status.
Earlier this week, she received a 12-hour suspension from Twitter after she shared misinformation about the coronavirus vaccines, as IJR reported.
Greene also compared President Joe Biden’s idea of a door-to-door vaccination push to Nazi “brown shirts.” In a tweet, she wrote, “People have a choice, they don’t need your medical brown shirts showing up at their door ordering vaccinations. You can’t force people to be part of the human experiment.”
In June, she apologized for comparing COVID-19 measures to the Holocaust and said there is “nothing comparable” to it.