Ben Burke Producer

“I don’t know how I could be any more clear”: McConnell pushes Americans to get vaccine

Jul 21, 2021

Ben Burke Producer

By Ben Burke (Producer)

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell reemphasized his message regarding the COVID-19 vaccines Tuesday, saying Americans need to get the vaccine. The video above shows some of the comments Sen. McConnell made on Capitol Hill.

“I don’t know how I could be any more clear than I have been. I’ve been saying the same thing about vaccinations all along the way,” McConnell said.

He referenced the fact that nearly all new COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the United Stated are among unvaccinated people. “Ninety-seven percent of the hospitalizations in the country for COVID are unvaccinated people,” McConnell said. “It never occurred to me after three highly effective vaccines were developed in under a year that we’d have difficulty getting Americans to take the shots. But that’s obviously where we are.”

McConnell also urged Americans to ignore the “demonstrably bad advice” coming from pundits and others against the vaccines. “Others can say whatever they choose to say,” McConnell said. “But this is something I think I’m a good example of, something I know the answer to. It is not at all unclear that the way to avoid getting back in the hospital is to get vaccinated.”

He stopped short of criticizing prominent Republicans who refuse the vaccine or mock the severity of the virus, including members of Congress. However, he has expressed his dismay in the past at those who choose to go unvaccinated. On Tuesday, he gave a grave warning about what would happen if the the current U.S. vaccination rate didn’t improve.

“These shots need to get in everybody’s arm as rapidly as possible or going to be back in the situation in the fall that we don’t yearn for, that we went through last year,” McConnell said.

McConnell has been one of the most outspoken members of his party in urging vaccinations to stop the virus spread, speaking often of the need for people to get the shot when back in his home state of Kentucky.

Tags: Pandemic

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader: “97 percent of the hospitalizations in the country for COVID are unvaccinated people. It never occurred to me after three highly effective vaccines were developed in under a year that we’d have difficulty getting Americans to take the shots. But that’s obviously where we are. I want to underscore in the strongest possible manner I can, and I say this with some authority, as you all know, as a result of being a polio victim myself and being very aware that took seven decades to come up with two effective polio vaccines. This was done in under one year. These shots need to get in everybody’s arm as rapidly as possible or going to be back in the situation in the fall that we don’t yearn for, that we went through last year. In addition to the wave of inflation that you already heard all of us talking about, the economy does not need this tax and spending spree. Its lifting on its own as we come out of this. The way to defeat getting back into the position, we were last year is to get vaccinated. This is not complicated. 97 percent of the people who are in the hospital now for COVID are unvaccinated. So, if there’s anybody out there willing to listen, get vaccinated. I don’t know how I could be any more clear than I have been, I’ve been saying the same thing about vaccinations all along the way. Others can say whatever they choose to say. But this is something I think I’m a good example of, something I know the answer to. It is not at all unclear that the way to avoid getting back in the hospital is to get vaccinated and want to encourage everybody to do that and to ignore all of these other voices that are giving demonstrably bad advice.”