COVID cases are on the rise in every state across the country. Despite vaccines now being available to most people, less than half of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, a percentage we seem to be stuck at. As Stephen Colbert explained on Wednesday’s episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, “The rising cases are being fueled by vaccine hesitancy, which itself is being fueled by a dangerous pathogen scientists are calling ‘the Republican Party.’” Fortunately, some of the GOP’s most prominent members — and, relatedly, some of its most vocal vaccination critics in the past — seem to finally be coming around to the conclusion that being alive is better than not being alive.
“The forecast is so dire some prominent Republicans are speaking up, like Senate minority leader and condom stuffed with baby food Mitch McConnell. Yesterday, McConnell urged everyone to go get a shot… Wow. I’ve got to say — and I hope no one ever takes this out of context — I agree with Mitch McConnell.”
Colbert continued, “We’ve also seen a vaccine change of heart from Louisiana representative and frog who got kissed and turned into an injury attorney Steve Scalise. Scalise finally got his first dose of the vaccine just last week, and yesterday encouraged others to do the same.”
Just yesterday, Scalise announced that “the vaccine is safe, effective, and it’s widely available”… as if that were news. After comparing him to “the guy who just now found out about Bridgerton,” Colbert noted that “Scalise seems to want it both ways, because he then criticized public health outreach saying, ‘You’re seeing some people try to bully people into doing things instead of just encouraging them.’” Which, when you really think about it, isn’t all that surprising coming from a man who, after being shot during a Congressional baseball practice in 2017, claimed that being nearly killed by a rogue gunman made him an even more “ardent” supporter of the Second Amendment “in part because I was saved by people who had guns.”
You can watch the full clip above.