Lexington, KY — Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the U.S. Senate Republican leader, urged men to take the COVID-19 vaccine last week.
After touring a mass vaccination center at the University of Kentucky last Monday, McConnel said: “I saw on some program last week that Republican men, curiously enough, might be reluctant to take the vaccine.”
“I’m a Republican man, and I want to say to everyone, you need to take this vaccine. These reservations need to be put aside, because the only way I think to get, to finally put this pandemic in the rearview mirror, is with herd immunity . . . 75 percent of us need to take this vaccine,” McConnell added.
Democrat President Joe Biden suggested it’s patriotic for Americans to take medical advice from the government when praising McConnell for his statements on the vaccine. Biden also suggested Americans do not have a right to informed consent, and said McConnell agrees.
“Mitch McConnell keeps speaking to them, which I give him credit for, saying,” Biden said, adding: “Polling data shows Republican men, particularly young men, don’t think they should have to take the vaccine. It’s their patriotic right not to do it, their freedom to choose, and (McConnell’s) saying, ‘No. No. Take the vaccine.’ And I’ll add a phrase he didn’t but I think he believes. It’s a patriotic responsibility you have.”
McConnell’s comments were made after his state’s Democrat governor urged politicians in his state, specifically its Washington, D.C. delegation, to tell constituents to take the shot.
In a March letter reported on this weekend by Kentucky Health News (KHN), Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear urged politicians to push medical advise on the public.
“I ask for your help in promoting the importance and safety of the vaccines through your social-media accounts and in your public appearances,” Beshear wrote. “The more we can all make clear to Kentuckians that receiving the vaccine is a public health issue and not a partisan one, the more lives we will save and the sooner we will be able to return to business as usual in our great commonwealth.”
One Republican lawmaker, Rep. Thomas Massie (KY-4), stated politicians should not be offering their opinions on the vaccine, but most GOP lawmakers from the state agreed with Beshear.
Rep. Brett Guthrie (KY-2), a Republican, said Beshear was “late to the game” and that he’s been pushing the shot “all along.” He appealed to bipartisanship, not medical science, and stated it was trustworthy because former Republican President Donald Trump was involved in the vaccine’s creation.
“If you think that it’s a political problem, so you are not going to get vaccinated, that is just not the right way to look at it because it has been across both administrations,” KHN reported Guthrie of saying. “As a matter of fact, most of the work was done under President Trump’s administration. So, if you are politically conservative and are concerned about vaccines because of the government, most of this was done under President Trump.”
In contrast, Massie told KHN: “I’m leaving personal medical decisions up to the individuals and won’t be undertaking a vaccine promotion campaign. It would be somewhat disingenuous for me to do so when I have no plans to receive the vaccine myself, in the absence of data showing that it’s beneficial to those who’ve already recovered from the virus.
“Ultimately, people should listen to their personal doctors,” Massie added. “It would be foolish for the general public to take health advice from my cohort of politicians, who are themselves fairly unhealthy, uneducated in science or medicine, don’t think that being $30 trillion in debt is a concern, and are conditioned to say what will most benefit themselves.”
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