Georgia Congressional Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted on July 19, 2021 that contracting the novel coronavirus was “not dangerous for non-obese people and people under 65.” In a second tweet, Rep. Greene said that “defeating obesity” would protect people from COVID-19 complications. Rep. Greene’s claim that young, non-obese people are not at risk to be hospitalized or die from COVID-19 has been refuted by many public health experts.
Automatic warnings were added to both of Rep. Greene’s tweets, labeling them as “misleading,” and Greene’s twitter account was suspended and put on “read-only” mode for 12 hours. Greene responded to her account suspension, saying it was “a Communist-style attack on free speech.”