TRENTON, N.J. – New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy cited the state’s COVID-19 “caseload” as an excuse for holding off on new openings “for some time.”
“My guess is we won’t be opening capacity for some time now because of the caseload,” Murphy told CNN on Monday morning.
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The one-term Democrat who is up for reelection this year also doubled down on his openness to the adoption of vaccine passports, adding “[d]o I think it’s a crazy idea? No.”
His expressed concerns are clearly very, very new. Like “in the past couple of days” new. The Murphy Administration just relaxed capacity restrictions on restaurants, gyms and other similar businesses to 50% effective the end of last week; indoor gatherings are capped at 25 people, an increase from the previous limit of 10.
I deconstructed Murphy’s premise back on March 15th (click here if you missed it). Cases are a TERRIBLE measure of the pandemic’s seriousness. New Jersey’s numbers also can’t be trusted given the state’s history of manipulative and at times downright sloppy reporting. Look what happened the other day:
#DashFollies
Number of PCR cases wrong.
No hospital data.
No tests.But hey @NJDeptofHealth you got Rt correct! #YouHaveOneJob
No worries. Ain't like this is a public emergency or anything. 🤦🏻♂️ pic.twitter.com/8HvXJQfy0M
— Kurt Siegelin (@kurtsiegelin) March 21, 2021
And then there’s the not-insignificant point that states which are waaaaaay more open than we are are currently doing better by just about every single common Covid measure.
Don’t even get me started on variants either. Rand Paul said it all in his recent verbal throwdown with Dr. Fauci on Capitol Hill.
It’s politics, folks. To borrow Senator/Doctor Paul’s language: theater.
Murphy will start reopening things again – regardless of what the data actually says – at some point around Labor Day if not much earlier. November is coming. He can’t get reelected unless it feels like things are getting better.
How many more nursing home residents and small businesses will need to pay the price for his reelection ambition in the interim?
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