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.