• Robert Preidt and Robin Foster
• Posted July 21, 2021

McConnell Tells Unvaccinated Americans to Get COVID-19 Shots

Unlike many others in his party, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday urged unvaccinated Americans to get COVID-19 shots as new coronavirus cases climb and the country risks the return of shutdowns.

During his weekly press conference call at the Capitol, McConnell said people should ignore the "demonstrably bad advice" coming from those who oppose the vaccines, the Associated Press reported.

He noted that unvaccinated people now account for nearly all new COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States.

"If there is anybody out there willing to listen: Get vaccinated," McConnell said, the AP reported.

"These shots need to get in everybody's arms as rapidly as possible or we're going to be back in a situation in the fall that we don't yearn for -- that we went through last year," he said. "This is not complicated."

One of the most outspoken members of his party in urging vaccinations to stop the virus spread, McConnell has been speaking often in his home state of Kentucky of the need for people to get vaccinated, the AP reported.

Without attacking prominent Republicans who refuse the vaccine or mock the severity of the virus, he has continually expressed dismay at those who shun the shots, the wire service said..

As a survivor of childhood polio, McConnell has spoken publicly of the relief that came with the development of vaccines.

'It never occurred to me" that after the COVID-19 vaccines were quickly developed for use in this country that "we'd have difficulty getting Americans to get the shot," he said Tuesday.

More information

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for more on COVID-19 vaccines.

SOURCE: Associated Press