When the CDC told New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to lockdown his state, he did. For more than a year. When the CDC told Phil Murphy to shut down schools, he did. For almost a year. When the CDC told Phil Murphy to wear two facemasks, he did.
Murphy this week said he will eventually unmask New Jersey, but did not give a timeline or explain any benchmarks associated with a possible future acceptance of the CDC guidance.
Now, the CDC is telling Phil Murphy to stop requiring fully vaccinated American citizens to wear facemasks, because the science doesn’t support it, and Phil Murphy is ignoring the science. Worse, the science he’s ignoring is the Joe Biden CDC, not the Donald Trump CDC.
The President himself gave the CDC unmasking mandate his seal of approval, calling it a “Great day for America”.
That is unless you live in New Jersey, where there hasn’t been a great day in quite a long time, especially if you’re one of the many assisted living facilities that followed the governor’s science in March of 2020. That science led Murphy to order long-term care facilities to take COVID-19 infected residents they weren’t prepared for. It also lead to the death of nearly 10,000 elderly New Jerseyans and dozens of care facility workers.
Murphy is one of a handful of governors to balk at the science of the CDC after the nation’s leading communicable disease organization said the fully vaccinated can unmask.
This week, a crowd showed up in Murphy’s hometown to protest his decision to keep his state masked up. It turns out, his decision might not just be based on science, but also politics.
The powerful United Food and Commercial Workers union is pushing Murphy to keep New Jersey fully masked indefinitely. Murphy retweeted statements from the union praising him for his effort.
“The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), which represents 1.3 million essential food and retail workers — including 52,000 New Jersey frontline workers, applauded Governor Phil Murphy for his action to maintain New Jersey’s statewide mask mandate and other vital COVID safety measures,” the union said.
When asked why he will continue keeping New Jersey masked up, Phil Murphy this week said, “We’re not there yet.”