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Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, on Monday encouraged “all Republican men” to get vaccinated against COVID-19, according to CNN.

Recent polls have indicated that many men who identify as Republican are skeptical of getting the vaccine and don’t intend to get one.

“I can say as a Republican man, as soon as it was my turn, I took the vaccine. I would encourage all Republican men to do that,” McConnell said during a news conference at the Appalachian Regional Healthcare Hazard Clinic in Kentucky, where he focused on the state’s COVID-19 vaccine efforts.

“There’s no good argument not to get the vaccination,” he added. “I would encourage all men, regardless of party affiliation, to get the vaccination.”

In a CNN poll released earlier in March, about 92% of Democrats said they had received a vaccine or planned to get one, as compared with 50% of Republicans. In addition, about 46% of Republicans said they won’t get one. In another poll by PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist, 49% of Republican men said they didn’t plan to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

CNN has polled the members of the House of Representatives as well. Released last week, the survey showed that 189 of 219 Democrats have been vaccinated, and 53 of 211 Republicans have been vaccinated. An additional 13 Republicans said they haven’t been vaccinated though they said they plan to be, and 145 Republicans didn’t respond.

On Sunday, Rep.-elect Julia Letlow, a Republican from Louisiana, urged her fellow Republicans to get vaccinated, citing her own experience and her husband’s death from COVID-19 complications in December.

“Look at my family. Use my story,” she said on CBS’ Face the Nation .

“I experienced a tragedy in my immediate family, and COVID can touch every family out there,” she said. “There is a vaccine that has life-saving capabilities. I want to encourage everyone to trust it and get the vaccine.”

SOURCES:

CNN, “Mitch McConnell: ‘I would encourage all Republican men’ to get vaccinated.”

CNN, “CNN Poll: One year into the coronavirus pandemic, most Americans say the worst has passed.”

PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist, “NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll Results: the Biden Administration & COVID-19.”

CNN, “Inside why all lawmakers still aren’t vaccinated after months of access to shots on the Hill.”

CBS News, “Full transcript of “Face the Nation” on March 28, 2021.”

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