A fresh wave of deaths and hospitalizations like the ones that crippled the country last year loom on the horizon if people don't wise up and get vaccinated against COVID-19, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned.

"These shots need to get in everybody's arms 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 (R-Ky.) said at a news conference Tuesday, adding, "This is not complicated."

Asked about comments from Utah Gov. Spencer Cox alleging that conservative pundits are killing people with their rhetoric, McConnell stated that he encourages everybody to "ignore all of these other voices that are giving demonstrably bad advice."