Vaccine Safety: By Marjorie Taylor Greene(Part 1)

On November 13, 2023, Greene chaired a congressional hearing on vaccine safety.

On February 13, 2024, National Geographic Press will be publishing a book I wrote called, TELL ME WHEN IT’S OVER: AN INSIDER’S GUIDE TO DECIPHERING COVID MYTHS AND NAVIGATING A POST-PANDEMIC WORLD. Before publication, I will be writing about issues described in the book.

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In next three posts, I will focus on the misinformation business and the war on science.

On November 13, 2023, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, Georgia) held a meeting to discuss COVID vaccines. Greene had already made a name for herself by claiming that Jewish space lasers had caused wildfires in California, that Donald Trump was fighting a worldwide sex-slavery ring, that Muslims don’t belong in government, that the shootings in Parkland, Sandy Hook and Las Vegas were staged, and that 9/11 was an inside job. Who better to educate the press and the public about COVID and COVID vaccines?

Greene began the meeting, which was held in a tiny room in the Capitol building, stating, “We will hear from expert doctors who have bravely sounded the alarm on vaccines.” Flanked by Clay Higgins (R, Louisiana), Ron Johnson (R, Wisconsin), Thomas Massie (R, Kentucky), Warren Davidson (R, Ohio), and Andy Biggs (R, Arizona), the meeting was poorly attended, poorly staffed, and poorly equipped. Because only one microphone was available to the congressmen and only one available to those who testified, the microphones had to be passed back and forth. Also, the hearing wasn’t really a “committee” hearing because no committee had sponsored it. Rather, as described by Greene, it was part of the “shadow Congress.” Matt Gaetz (R, Florida), who popped in and out of the meeting, explained that the real committee seats “were bought and paid for by Big Pharma.”

Three people testified before Greene’s “committee.” A lawyer, an obstetrician-gynecologist, and a scientist. In Part 1 of this three-part posting, we’ll start with the lawyer.  

The first to testify was 46-year-old Thomas Renz, who passed the Ohio bar exam in November 2019 on his fifth attempt. Renz then joined fellow COVID conspiracy theorists like Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and Roger Stone on a national speaking tour titled “ReAwaken America.” He has since made more than a hundred appearances on conservative talk shows like One America, Newsmax, and Infowars. During the Greene hearing, Renz made three claims, the last of which was the most explosive.

First, Renz declared, “The people that are dying are vaccinated.” Contrary to Renz’s claim, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that in 2021, unvaccinated adults were 12 times more likely to be hospitalized and in 2022, that they were 6 times more likely. COVID vaccines have been estimated to have saved the lives of more than 3 million Americans.  

Second, Renz said that “COVID is not as bad as SARS or MERS but about as dangerous as a bad flu season.” The first pandemic coronavirus, called SARS-1, was identified in Asia in February 2003. That virus spread to 30 countries, infected more than 8,000 people, and killed about 800. By July 2003, the global outbreak was contained. The second pandemic coronavirus, called MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), appeared about ten years later, in June 2012, in Saudi Arabia. That virus spread to 20 countries, infected more than 2,500 people, and killed about 900. SARS-CoV-2, on the other hand, has killed almost 1.2 million people in the United States and 7 million people in the world. Unless Renz was referring to the 1918 flu pandemic,  which killed more than 50 million people worldwide, COVID is worse than any other flu season in history.

Renz saved the best for last. With the help of an “unnamed whistleblower,” Renz claimed that something suspicious had happened in November 2014 at Fort Riley, Kansas, when the Department of Defense (DOD) and the CIA, in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, had created SARS-CoV-2 virus. To support his claim, Renz offered only conspiracy and innuendo. In fact, abundant evidence now proves that SARS-CoV-2 virus was an animal-to-human spillover event that occurred in the western section of the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market in late 2019.

No one was more excited by Renz’s revisionist history than Clay Higgins (R, Louisiana). “I didn’t trust Dr. Fauci from the moment I met him,” Higgins declared. “I generally don’t trust the government. This is a weaponized virus. It was sticky. It sickened and weakened but it did not kill, which takes more soldiers to take care of that person.” Renz later claimed that it wasn’t only Tony Fauci, the CDC, the FDA, and the DOD that had played a part in this massive cover-up, Hunter Biden was also involved (because why not?).

Next up was the testimony of an obstetrician-gynecologist from Florida. Stay tuned.