Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) denounced spending to fight monkeypox, saying that “no one” cares about the disease, which has mostly affected men who have sex with men in the U.S.
“Congress is back in session this week and this is why it’s always a problem for the American people,” she said in a Facebook video.
She repudiated Senate Democrats’ bill that would send more aid to Ukraine before she turned to LGBTQ people’s health, denouncing Democrats because they would “also spend money for monkeypox, the one thing that no one is concerned about. Congress is always causing damage to our economy and putting the American people in debt.”
Greene may have been referring to the White House asking Congress for $4.5 billion for vaccinations, treatment, and testing for Americans affected by or at risk of monkeypox. Biden administration officials said that the U.S. also needs to rebuild its stockpile of vaccines which are useful against both monkeypox and smallpox.
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This isn’t the first time that Greene has said that the outbreak affecting mostly LGBTQ people isn’t important. In July, she said that “people just have to laugh at it, mock it, and reject it” because the disease only affects “some people.” She also called monkeypox a “scam” and compared it to COVID-19.
“Of course, monkeypox is a threat to some people in our population,” Greene said at the time. “But we know what causes it, and that’s pretty much, um… it’s basically a sexually transmitted disease. So it’s not a threat to most of the population.”
