MAGA firebrand Marjorie Taylor Greene finally came out as a full-fledged anti-vaxxer on Monday when she outright claimed that “vaccines cause autism,” sparking widespread and bipartisan criticism for saying the shots are “crimes against humanity.”
The Georgia congresswoman has long been a skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccines, proudly noting that she never got vaccinated during the pandemic while questioning the safety of the jabs that doctors have credited for saving millions of lives. Besides claiming that the coronavirus shots have led to thousands of injuries and deaths, Greene has even baselessly insisted that they are causing cancer.
Having recently spread conspiracy theories such as claiming the government is creating hurricanes with weather-manipulating machines, the far-right lawmaker decided to fully embrace Donald Trump’s Health and Human Services nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s debunked claim that vaccines are responsible for autism in children.
“I fully believe vaccines cause Autism,” she posted to X Monday. “It’s another example of crimes against humanity. And innocent babies, children, and their families are the victims.”
Greene also shared a video from right-wing social media account MJ Truth Ultra, which has regularly peddled misinformation about supposed election fraud. The clip features Kennedy claiming that not only do children get autism from vaccinations, but that kids who are exposed to measles as a child are much healthier as adults. On top of that, Kennedy also dismissed government studies showing there’s no link between autism and vaccines as corrupt.
Greene’s tweet was soon hit with a scathing Community Note that included links to 19 publications – including from the CDC and Mayo Clinic – refuting her claim. “Vaccines do not cause autism,” the note stated. “The scientific literature on this is so extensive, that claiming otherwise can only be explained through sheer ignorance, or some sort of nefarious political purpose.”
Besides the fact-check from X’s readers, Greene also faced a whole host of critics from across the political spectrum who pointed out that her claim has no basis in fact.
“In a study of over 600,000 Danish children born between 1999 and 2010, MMR vaccination was associated with a non-significant *reduction* in autism risk after controls,” Charles Fain Lehman, senior fellow of the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute, posted in response.
“Vaccines do not cause autism and this has been proven over and over and over again. One fake study by a now former physician with manipulated data is not going to ever change this fact,” liberal social media influencer Yashar Ali noted, referencing a since-debunked study that Kennedy regularly cites as proof. “Vaccines do not cause autism,” he emphasized again.
Besides getting lambasted by pundits and political observers, Greene was also fact-checked by medical experts.
“For those who actually care about the science. The discussion regarding autism RFK is leading here in this clip surrounds his criticism of the Simpsonwood CDC conference,” family physician and popular YouTuber Dr. Mike Varshavski reacted. “He actually wrote an article on it that was so full of mistakes that it had to be corrected 5 times, including misstating which vaccines had thimerosal and how much mercury was even in vaccines.”
“I detail the evidence showing that vaccines do not cause autism + the genetic and neurodevelopmental processes that actual can result in autism or ASD in the book about my daughter with [John Hopkins University],” Dr. Peter Hotez added, citing his 2018 book Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel’s Autism: My Journey As a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician, and Autism Dad.
While some called Greene’s tweet “embarrassing” and pointing out the other conspiracy theories she has amplified, others noted that her belief in the danger of vaccines is pretty much in line with the incoming president’s.
“The fact that this person is an elected official with now-widespread acceptance in one political party is a serious problem,” election data analyst Laksyha Jain wrote. “And if you think this is bad, just remember that this is not too far from the stated views of the president-elect and his incoming HHS secretary.”
Indeed, around the same time that Greene was posting her thoughts on social media, Trump was holding a press conference in which he claimed “there’s something wrong” with autism rates while saying Kennedy was “going to find out about it.” He also stated that while he supports keeping the polio vaccine in circulation, he’s not a fan of schools mandating children to be vaccinated.
