At his weekly Covid-19 press conference on Monday, Governor Phil Murphy said he is asking the New Jersey Legislature for a 90-day extension of both his emergency pandemic powers and school mask mandates.
The pandemic powers Governor Murphy is asking an extension for emergency powers related to vaccine distribution and administration, testing, and “ensuring adherence to CDC guidance in vulnerable settings.”
Included in the request is a 90-day extension for a number of administrative orders, directives and waivers that have been issues by New Jersey departments and agencies in response to the pandemic, as well as an extension of the school mask mandate.
Governor Murphy noted that there are currently more people in New Jersey hospitals with Covid-19 than at any point in the past year, and the most since May 2020.
Shockers! A politician who is hesitant to relinquish power! This has never ever happened in the history of the world!
But also… curious as to what he’s gonna do with said power. What wonderful, amazing, covid healing mandates will he pass with his “Emergency” Pandemic Power. What else will we have to have hakaras hatov to him for?
As predicted by many, these politicians will NEVER give up their power.
There’s no question that it should be extended.
I am with Stevenn all the way.
Even if it means jumping off a cliff.
All true believers!
Please follow the voice of reason – Stevenn and myself – as we drive this pandemic in to the sea!
We must fight the good albeit nonsensical fight until the bitter end!
Forward March until 2030!
Masks on you imbeciles!
Could not have said it better than Hakaras Ha Tov Ready. The utter ga’ava of these people to still think that they have the power to stop this thing… Why don’t we take away all privileges and rights from all people who don’t booster the booster and wear mask on top of mask and see if that helps? At that point we will for sure have G-d in checkmate ch”v.
if everyone would be vaccinated…
I assume you write in jest as now everyone sees the vaccines are a total waste of time as omnicron blows right through them. All that was “gained” was putting yourself for possible immune problems in the future, blood clotting, and הלכות נדה problems as everyone has heard by now. May Hashem protect all of the פתאים…..
I totally agree with Stevann.
How else are we gonna get rid of this pandemic?
I never took my mask off but unfortunately other people have no regard for people around them an continue to work, shop an do watever they want while they have Covid
It’s really sad that people can be so selfish. So YES ther needs to be more restrictions in place
I have not seen anyone continuing to “work, shop and do whatever they want with Covid”..
You never took your mask off? How long have you had covid for? If you are sick you should stay home, mask or not.
Most people are responsible and do not leave home when they are sick.
Unvaccinated people have 20 times the risk of dying from COVID than people who are fully vaccinated and received the booster. Nurses are again overworked in hospitals as they care for unvaccinated COVID patients. This information is readily available. Omicron is more contagious than delta so it is recommended that we use KN95 or N95 masks and maintain social distance. We know breakthrough is happening with Omicron but, the vaccinated people experience that as mild or moderate, most not requiring hospitalization. It is disrespectful to the memory of the more than 800,000 dead Americans to talk about COVID as though it is an inconvenience and shows a level of disrespect to those most needing protection in society. That includes infants and other young children too young to be vaccinated and to the immune compromised. Empathy and an understanding of the virus is what has been lacking in society as a whole and that has led to unnecessary death and to many other people who will be left disabled with Long Covid. The prior President is finally coming out to say that being vaccinated is important. Masks also matter. If we behaved as though everyone mattered, the virus wouldn’t have had the chance to mutate over and over. You may dislike Murphy but, he and the rest of us learned what is needed to keep us safe, to keep us out of the hospital. This is what he is trying to do by mandating masks. Facts and science are what they are. As better information becomes available via rigorous compilation and checking of data, science updates. I don’t like wearing a mask. But, I have a duty to my fellow humans to try not to spread the virus. If we can’t do the bare minimum to prevent suffering or death, what does that say about us as a society?
Until when? For how many years will we continue to wear masks and social distance ourselves as variant after variant blows across the globe? The flu comes around with a vengeance every year. Did anyone ever suggest shutting down society? No, because there is no end in sight. The same is for increasingly mild forms of corona. They are here to stay. Are masks and social distancing also here to stay? Do we have to wave goodbye to normal life forever?
Our Hakaras Hatov indicates that we should grant him the power for at least 90 days. I think 180 or 365 is more appropriate.
Or maybe give him a mandate until Moshiach arrives. That would be the responsible thing to do.
I hope all who voted for him, or even those who stayed home and didn’t vote appropriately, are happy. I teach in a yeshiva that follows the ridiculous mask law and force everyone to be masked. Nebech, the kids are suffering terribly and the learning is so shvach because of it.
No end in sight.
Melis,how many have died from Omicron? Whose science and facts are you referring to? Until exactly when are we supposed to continue wearing these masks? Is 2020 the end of when people were allowed to show their faces in public- forever? Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the previous president push for vaccines already in his administration? …….
Well said Chaim! In truth, there is no better way to achieve her immunity than letting the Omnicron do its thing.
It is also quite disingenuous for those who keep on attributing every death to Covid. At this point it is quite known that even if someone passed away from a heart attack it was recorded as Covid.
You are NOT going to win with these people; they have fallen in love with their diaper-like masks and there is nothing you can do.
The psychological damage is done.
RebRambo and Chaim – there is something dystopian to suggest we just let Omicron do its thing. Who are you, RebRambo, to decide who among us has value and who does not? Additionally, you can get more than one variant at a time. Regarding those with underlying conditions, those people might very well have lived a lot longer had they not been infected by COVID. Your argument is akin to saying a patient with cancer who was hit by a car and died didn’t die as a result of the car but, of the cancer itself.
I don’t know nor do I assume who knows about history so I will share this. German officials attempted to kill those in the Warsaw ghetto by means of typhus, overcrowding and minimal nutrition. The data studied recently and with consultation from the diary of Emanuel Ringelbaum (he documented what he saw in the ghetto) was remarkable. The Jews in the ghetto were able to contain the infection just as deaths should have spiked. In fact, cases fell by 40%. They did this by enacting public health policy. It is awful that we, in 2021, have access to the COVID vaccines and knowledge that K95 and N95 masks prevent transmission and that there is any debate about caring for our fellow humans. How is wearing a mask such a big sacrifice? Think of the tremendous sacrifices made by people of allied nations during WW2. Think of sacrifices made by Israelis to bring Russian Jews to safety. Back to the present, hospitals are being overrun now by the unvaccinated. This will affect more than just the unvaccinated when, again, ICU beds will be unavailable for heart attack and stroke patients. There are reports in different parts of the country about long waits. Right now, should any of us require hospitalization in Hackensack Meridian, we could have no visitors even if we test COVID negative because omicron is spreading rapidly. Understand that there are effects that go beyond an individual’s choice not to mask.
Chaim – Former President Trump did not speak openly about receiving his vaccine early 2021. In fact, he first talked about how important it is to be vaccinated at the end of 2021. He told those assembled that he received the booster and some booed him. He told them not to boo. I can’t help but, wonder how many of his followers might have received the vaccine had he been open about it when he was first vaccinated.
I wish people would start viewing public health policy as a mitzvah. If we all wore our masks, if all who could be vaccinated were to be vaccinated, we could stop this virus from mutating yet again. When my time comes, when I hopefully am in the presence of G-d and he asks what I did to help others, to reduce suffering, I can say that I chose to protect the immunocompromised and infants and children by not contributing to the spread of the virus. Again, I cannot fathom how anyone views wearing a mask as a massive sacrifice. I respect doctors and nurses enough not to make their jobs more difficult, not to contribute to the spread of Long COVID and therefore not disable the innocent. Finally, the economy is booming in terms of jobs and the stock market. Inflation was caused by companies increasing their prices to get record profits. Abiding by good public health policy has not hurt the economy and it is a red herring by those on the right to equate what corporations did to drive profits with legitimate inflation.