In a new television public service announcement Mitch McConnell urges Americans to get vaccinated

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, is stepping up his attempts to get more Americans to be vaccinated against Covid-19 with a new public service announcement ready for broadcast on television stations across the country.

In a new television public service announcement Mitch McConnell urges Americans to get vaccinated

The commercial is aimed at vaccine skeptics among Republicans, and it responds to concern about the shot expressed by many members of his own party. This comes as the number of Covid-19 cases continues to grow, and hospitals around the country — particularly in red states — are overwhelmed by unvaccinated people afflicted with the extremely dangerous Delta strain. This is McConnell’s second commercial in an attempt to persuade Americans to get vaccinated. McConnell utilized cash from his reelection campaign to sponsor a radio commercial encouraging Covid vaccines across 100 radio stations in his state earlier this summer. McConnell draws on his own experience as a polio survivor in the new 30-second PSA, as he has done during the pandemic to encourage people to get the life-saving injection. “I battled polio as a child,” the Kentucky Republican says in the PSA. “Thanks to immunizations, America has been polio-free for 40 years.

We’ll also use vaccines to defeat Covid-19. Make sure you and your family are safe. Vaccinate yourself.” According to McConnell’s office, the PSA, which is a collaboration between the National Association of Broadcasters and the Kentucky Broadcasters Association, began running last week and has already aired more than 100 times across local TV stations in Kentucky. His office stated that the PSA is available for broadcast on television stations around the country. When asked why he spent his personal campaign funds to air the commercial, McConnell told CNN in July that he believes it’s “very important” to “keep pushing to have more Americans vaccinated.” The PSA is available in Covid-format. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the number of persons hospitalized in the US has hit a new record since January, with more than 100,000 people being admitted, with nearly all of those admitted being unvaccinated. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said on Monday that they’re being “struck harder than we ever were during the winter peak” in McConnell’s home state. At the same time, as the number of cases and hospitalizations has risen across the United States, a growing number of Americans are opting for the vaccine.

According to a new Axios-Ipsos poll released on Tuesday, the number of Americans who say they are unlikely to receive the Covid-19 vaccine is decreasing. According to the poll results, 20% of Americans think they are not very likely or at all likely to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, down from 34% in March. The rapid creation of three safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines by the United States has been dubbed a “modern medical marvel” by McConnell, the Senate’s top Republican. He’s also mentioned how tough it’s been to get more people vaccinated, saying on multiple occasions that it never occurred to him that getting people to take the vaccine would be so difficult. While McConnell has repeatedly urged Americans to get vaccinated, he has avoided directly criticizing many members of his own party, as well as numerous conservative media figures and several GOP-controlled TV and digital networks, for spreading misinformation and skepticism about Covid-19 vaccines and mask-wearing throughout the pandemic.

When asked why he hasn’t been harsher on other Republicans who have minimized the vaccine or opposed wearing masks, McConnell told a reporter in Kentucky on Monday that he doesn’t feel it “serves any particular purpose to start condemning others.” After a local event in Lexington, Kentucky, McConnell continued, “I think the best thing for me to do is to say how I feel about it, and to try to urge those folks who care what I think to do the right thing.” At a July press conference at the US Capitol, McConnell responded that people “may say whatever they want,” but that he will continue to promote vaccines and that Americans should “ignore all of these other voices that are giving clearly terrible advice.”