Greene’s Deceptive Claims of Forced COVID-19 Vaccinations and Vaccination ‘Deaths’

There is no evidence that a door-to-door campaign to encourage vaccinations against COVID-19 means President Joe Biden and Democrats “are coming to your front door to force you to take the vax,” as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted. She also cited a figure for reported deaths after vaccination, which is not the same as deaths caused by vaccination.

President Joe Biden announced July 6 that the next phase of his administration’s outreach program to get more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19 will include community volunteers knocking on doors to inform people about the safety and efficacy of the available vaccines and to let them know where they can get a vaccination.

Based on that announcement, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made the unfounded claim that Biden and other Democrats will “force” unvaccinated people to get a shot.

In a July 9 tweet, the Republican lawmaker wrote: “5,946 reported deaths after taking the #COVID19 vaccine. The vaccine is NOT FDA approved. 33,631,656 Americans SURVIVED covid. But Biden & the Dems are coming to your front door to force you to take the vax, schools say your healthy kids need it, and you still think your free?”

But there is no evidence that the White House will require anyone whose home is visited to be vaccinated as part of the outreach effort. 

Greene’s other claims — about the number of reported deaths after vaccination, the approval status of the vaccines and the number of people who have survived COVID-19 — lack important context and could mislead readers.

In his July 6 remarks, Biden said that although nearly 160 million U.S. residents are fully vaccinated and more than 180 million have received at least one vaccine dose, “millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected” against COVID-19.

For that reason, he said, his administration will continue to focus on different ways to get even more of the population immunized.