McConnell: ‘It Never Occurred to Me We’d Have Difficulty Getting People to Take the Vaccine’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Larry Kudlow on Wednesday that he did not anticipate the high level of Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in the United States.

“The one thing we know works is the vaccines,” said McConnell, and noted that he’s a polio survivor. “Honestly, it never occurred to me we’d have difficulty getting people to take the vaccine.”

McConnell has been perhaps the most outspoken Republican member of Congress when it comes to encouraging Americans to get vaccinated. Earlier this month he said, “This is not complicated.”

“So clearly we’ve got a job to do to try to convince reluctant Americans of all types who seem to be holding back unconvinced that this is the right thing to do. There’s one statistic that proves it: 97% of the people in the hospital right now with Covid are unvaccinated. Total conclusive case for vaccination.”

Kudlow then took issue with the new masking guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. On Tuesday, the agency recommended that everyone, including vaccinated people, wear masks in public and indoor settings in places with high transmission to help stop the spread of Covid-19 and the new delta variant.

“Masking is not going to solve it,” he said. “Vaccinations will solve it.”

He added that the CDC’s announcement “just confuses the issue.”

“I think it is somewhat confusing,” said McConnell. “What I recommend everybody to do, focus on the vaccines. We know that works. That’s the way to finally get the virus in a rear view mirror, is for more and more Americans to be vaccinated.”

Watch above via Fox Business Network.

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