AOC has proven during her short political career that she is not one to let the facts get in the way of a good tweet.
This time, though, she claimed credit for legislation and a deal that was put in place long before she ever came to office.
Uhm… You Didn’t Do That
After Donald Trump sent out a tweet calling out top Democrats, including AOC, the young congresswoman took it a bit personal.
She responded by telling Trump she was doing something other than being impeached.
However, one of the major accomplishments she listed is not actually hers to tout…
In my first 11 months I’ve cosponsored 339 pieces of legislation, authored 15, took on Big Pharma w/ my colleagues in hearings that brought PreP generic a year early & exposed abuse of power.
In 4 years, you’ve jailed kids & made corruption the cause celebré.
Try to keep up. https://t.co/lyg30LKVCd
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) November 24, 2019
The medication to which AOC was referring is more commonly known as Truvada.
The PrEP medication is believed to prevent HIV in 99 percent of the patients that use it properly.
The patent for the active ingredient in the medication does run out in 2021, which by law the medicine can then be made in a generic form by all medical companies.
However, in 2014, the owner of the patent, Gilead, agreed to allow the drug to come to market in 2020.
So, AOC had nothing at all to with this as she claimed in her tweet.
Secondly, in terms of making the drug more readily available, that is also a lie.
The Department of Health and Human Services has already filed a lawsuit against Gilead for infringing on patents already in existence for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If that lawsuit is successful, the government will be able to distribute an HIV PrEP medication at far lower costs and in some cases, completely free of charge, to those that need it.
The suit and move by the Trump administration were actually applauded by PrEP4All, an HIV prevention group.
Of course, when AOC was contacted to clarify her comments, her office did not respond to the request.
AOC may not have had much political experience, but she sure had caught on to the lying game that is played in D.C. very quickly.