New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is a very passionate and caring man. He truly believes that shutting down New Jersey businesses for a prolonged period of time in 2020, vaccine mandates, and mask mandates have all contributed to the saving of lives during the pandemic.
If you ask him about sending COVID-19 infected senior citizens to nursing homes, he doesn’t have much to say. But, when you ask him about his two-year-long school mask mandate, he stands by his decision to keep public school children he stands boldly behind his decision.
When asked by CNN if he thinks it worked, despite most states not having public school mask mandates, Murphy vehemently touted his decision as the right thing to do.
“Have you seen evidence that these mask mandates have been necessary?” Jake Tapper asked, when compared to states that did not enforce mask mandates.
“There’s no question that masking in our schools since the beginning of our school year has been a very smart public health step,” Murphy responded. “This has absolutely worked.”
Murphy said just 2,600 students in New Jersey out of 1.4 million tested positive since the start of the school year.
“But have you seen data that definitively proves that these mask mandates have worked,” he was asked. “The numbers you presented are impressive, but are they different from states that didn’t have mask mandates?”
“There’s no question it worked,” Murphy responded. “There’s no question, getting vaccinated, getting boosted, wearing masks indoors have all been positive health steps compared to the absence of any of those things in the alternative.”
According to a February report by the Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, there is some truth to Murphy’s statement when it comes to New Jersey, but not overwhelming scientific proof.
Rhode Island, the smallest state in America also had the highest rate of COVID-19 in children under 18 at 33,000 cases per 100,000 children. In second place was Arkansas, a state that actually banned school mask mandates. Other masked up states such as Delaware, Connecticut and South Carolina, all school mask mandate states were among the top 10 states per capita with COVID-19 among children.
New Jersey ranks 20th when it comes to states that had the lowest per-capita child infection rate in America. Many mask-free red states including Georgia and midwest states ranked among the healthiest in the country. The rebellious mask-free state Florida ranked 20th but the difference between New Jersey and Florida was just 3,000 cases per capita. Both states were above the national average of 16,000 cases per 100,000 children.
The data provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics shows that New Jersey’s did not see any substantial health benefit among children when compared to other states and there is no conclusive evidence in the data presented by the Children’s Hospital Association’s data that backs up the governor’s claim that masking up children stopped the spread of COVID-19 or saved a single life of a child under the age of 18.
New Jersey ranked 20th in the nation when it came to children’s health and the COVID-19 pandemic, essentially, right in the middle of the pack. Murphy’s claim is scientifically inconclusive, but not completely wrong.
You can read the full report here.
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