McConnell pushes COVID-19 vaccines amid delta variant worries

Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday pushed for more Americans to get vaccinated amid growing concerns about the delta coronavirus variant.

“There’s no good reason not to get vaccinated. We need to finish the job. And I know there’s some skepticism out there, but let me put it his way: It may not guarantee you don’t get it but it almost guarantees you don’t die from it if you get it,” McConnell said at an event in Kentucky.

McConnell has long publicly advocated for Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine, but his latest comments come as a USA Today analysis found that COVID-19 cases were up in nearly half of U.S. states and there are worries about the spread of the delta variant.

He warned on Tuesday that the United States isn’t in the “end zone” yet on getting vaccinated.

“The only solution ultimately is the vaccine. … We’re in the red zone with the vaccines, but we’re not quite in the end zone,” McConnell said.

Nearly 67 percent of adults in the U.S. have gotten at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, while roughly 58 percent are fully vaccinated.

That percentage varies widely state to state, however.

Just under 30 percent of Mississippi is fully vaccinated, according to Mayo Clinic data, while, on the other end of the spectrum, 66 percent of Vermont residents are fully vaccinated.

Arkansas, another state with a lower percentage of fully vaccinated residents, is among the states seeing an increase in cases.