McConnell, long a vaccine advocate, objects to Biden's mandate for health-care workers, saying it threatens Ky. rural hospitals

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has been perhaps the most outspoken Republican leader in favor of vaccination against the coronavirus, but Thursday he objected to President Biden's vaccination mandate for health-care workers, saying it threatens health care in rural America.

‘It’s unfair on a personal level, but even just looking at public health, it is terrible policy for rural America," McConnell said in a Senate floor speech. "We cannot have President Biden mass-firing doctors and nurses when hospitals are already short-staffed. Washington Democrats could safely hobnob in the Capitol all Tuesday evening with no masks, then they ought to stop pushing mass firings of essential health workers."

Rural vaccination rates are 17 percentage points lower than in urban areas, twice where the gap was in April, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in research published Thursday.

McConnell said vaccines "do not prevent people catching or transmitting the current variant. There is no moral justification for sweeping mandates. The benefits accrue to the person who gets the shot. What’s more, the CDC’s own research says that prior infection provides protection that is at least as strong as the vaccines. But the president’s overreaching mandate ignored that."

McConnell cited examples from his recent week in Kentucky, quoting three unnamed hospital leaders in Benton, Murray and Hardinsburg who said they were looking at "areas that may have to be shut down" due to lack of staff. He quoted in as saying, "I can afford to lose not one more nurse."