‘Stay in school kids’: Marjorie Taylor Greene mocked for appearing to claim that cancer is transmissible

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Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene once again attacked Covid restrictions and safety measures on Saturday.

Comparing deaths caused by the coronavirus infection to those caused by cancer, the Congresswoman made various claims about the two distinct illnesses, and said schools have never been shut down because of cancer, ignoring the fact that cancer is not contagious.

“Every single year more than 600,000 people in the US die from cancer. The country has never once shut down. Not a single school has closed,” the far-right conspiracy theorist, who has a long history of making unfounded claims, said in a thread on Twitter. “And every year, over 600,000 people, of all ages and all races will continue to die from cancer.”

“Since Covid19 tracking has started, 780,000+ people have died in 22 mo [months] in the US, but more than 1 million still died of cancer,” she wrote. “More have died in 2021 from covid than 2020 in spite of Gov [government] mandated widespread vaccines, mass public masking, & trillions spent.”

Ms Greene said Covid “predominantly affects obese and older people”, adding that more needed to be done to target obesity than the coronavirus. She also dismissed masks and lockdowns as ways to prevent an outbreak, despite evidence provided by scientific research.

“It’s time to take a different approach based on the facts. Covid predominately targets obese & older people,” the Republican leader incorrectly claimed. “Shutdowns, masking, and vaccines are not stopping covid, that is just government control. Ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, & other treatments are saving lives.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while vulnerable people, including those with excess weight or existing health conditions, are at an increased risk of severe impact from Covid, the virus transmits to anyone who comes in contact with an infected person.

As it exists in the form of droplets, masking has been recommended as a proven way to protect oneself.

Ivermectin is a livestock de-worming medicine that has become popular in conservative circles for Covid-19, While it is used in humans for other ailments, the FDA has warned ivermectin is an ineffective and unsafe treatment for Covid.

Ms Greene’s statement trying to draw parallels between Covid and cancer was strongly criticised on Twitter.

“I had cancer once. You know how many people I transmitted it to? Zero. Because cancer isn’t contagious,” wrote author Zack Hunt.

“The thing is, you can’t catch cancer from breathing near an infected person who might not show symptoms. Picture the world if you could,” journalist Hellen Kennedy wrote.

“Imagine thinking comparing Covid to cancer was a good thing. But here we are,” actor Angela Belcamino wrote.

“Stay in school, kids,” wrote Meidas Touch, a political action committee formed in March 2020 to stop the re-election of Donald Trump.

Ms Greene, who has made several controversial claims in the past including supporting far right, White supremacist theories and claims of voter fraud in 2020 elections, has time and again also questioned the efficacy of the vaccines, once leading to a suspension by Twitter in early August.

In November, Ms Greene said she had racked up more than $60,000 (more than £45,000) in fines for refusing to wear a mask in Congress. The congresswoman admitted she had not received the Covid vaccination while bragging about defying Nancy Pelosi’s mask mandate.

In May, she had compared mask mandates in the House to the Holocaust.

“You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star,” the Republican told conservative podcaster David Brody. “And they were definitely treated like second-class citizens, so much so that they were put on trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany, and this is exactly the type of abuse that [House speaker] Nancy Pelosi is talking about.”

While she defended the comments at first, she apologised three weeks later following widespread criticism.