“U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell blamed misinformation for the low rates of COVID-19 vaccination among Americans, which are fueling a rise in coronavirus cases, particularly in Republican-dominated states. ‘There is bad advice out there, you know. Apparently you see that all over the place: people practicing medicine without a license, giving bad advice. And that bad advice should be ignored,’ the 79-year-old Kentucky lawmaker told Reuters.”
“‘Not enough people are vaccinated,’ said McConnell, a polio survivor. ‘So we’re trying to get them to reconsider and get back on the path to get us to some level of herd immunity.'” McConnell, who was vaccinated for COVID-19 in December and has been promoting vaccinations in public remarks ever since, plans to run 60-second radio ads on more than 100 Kentucky radio stations in the coming days promoting the vaccine with money from his re-election campaign. Many congressional Republicans have refused to say publicly whether they have been vaccinated, and some have attacked the shots as unnecessary or dangerous. This continues a pattern that began early in the pandemic when conservatives protested social-distancing restrictions meant to slow the virus’ spread. The federal, state and local governments had been counting on rising levels of vaccination to allow them to safely lift those restrictions” – Reuters.