The vaccine helps stop the spread of the virus and slows down the highly contagious delta variant.
Republican Congressman Steve Scalise of Louisiana was a vaccine skeptic but is now joining the chorus of many who changed their views and now recommend getting the shot to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Scalise says it was the alarming data on the spike in the highly contagious Delta variant that convinced him to get vaccinated.
“Especially with the delta variant becoming a lot more aggressive and seeing another spike, it was a good time to do it,” he said in an interview with NOLA.com. “When you talk to people who run hospitals, in New Orleans or other states, 90% of people in hospital with delta variant have not been vaccinated. That’s another signal the vaccine works.”
Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio was on “CBS This Morning” Wednesday saying that everyone should get the vaccine as his state accounts for 20 percent of new infections in the country.
"Everyone should be vaccinated. There's no reason not to be vaccinated. I'm vaccinated, my family's vaccinated. The people shouldn't listen to people who tell them not to, all these things that are out there being said are just not accurate. At the end of the day, it's up to people to make that decision," Rubio said.
Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was part of the rising voices Tuesday, stressing the need for unvaccinated Americans to get the shots.
“These shots need to get in everybody’s arm as rapidly as possible, or we’re going to be back in a situation in the fall that we don’t yearn for, that we went through last year,” McConnell said during his weekly news conference. “I want to encourage everybody to do that and to ignore all of these other voices that are giving demonstrably bad advice.”
Some Fox News hosts, including Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy, who in the past have expressed skepticism about the vaccines, took a different tune this week and urged viewers to get the shot.
“I can’t say it enough. Enough people have died. We don’t need any more death,” Sean Hannity, who previously called the virus a hoax, said Monday on his broadcast. “And it absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated. I believe in science. I believe in the science of vaccination.”
In Los Angeles, many bars are doing what they can to convince people to get the shot. Some bars are requiring all patrons to show proof of vaccination in order to get served.
