A Fractured Nation Fights a Killer Virus
Taken from InsiderNJ
By Bob Hennelly
December 12, 2021
Even as we prepare for the Christmas holiday and New Year’s celebration that are just a couple of weeks away our state, region and nation are facing yet another spike of COVID infections, hospitalizations and death.
Despite the election of President Biden and his party controlling both the Senate and House of Representatives, almost a year into his presidency, the national unity he referenced throughout the campaign has yet to materialize.
As a result, our nation’s effort to combat this once in a century mass death event that’s on its way to killing a million Americans and infecting tens of millions more, remains somewhat fractured as it was under President Trump whose strategy was to actually pit the red and blue states against each other.
Our regional collaboration initiated by the now disgraced Gov. Cuomo, appears to have faded. At the time, the former New York Governor’s networking with our Gov. Murphy as well as with fellow Democrats, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolff and Connecticut Ned Lamont helped to foster a coherent public health strategy in the face of total federal dysfunction.
Now it appears in the tri-state region that each Governor has to navigate their own course based on their local conditions and vicissitudes.
For Gov. Murphy, that meant taking out time at his Dec. 8 COVID briefing to address the decision by several Republican Assembly members to bum rush the New Jersey State Police on Dec. 2 to take their seats on the floor of the State Assembly without abiding by the state’s public health protocols refusing to show proof of their vaccination or a negative test.
“I will say that we have the best state police in the entire United States of America, but the big story from last week is not about security,” Murphy told reporters. “It’s about the idiocy of these ringleaders who are putting their fellow members’ health and the family – families of those fellow members at risk.”
He continued. “This is not about freedom or civil rights. It’s about their willingness to volitionally run the risk of infecting innocent law-abiding folks who have done the right thing during this pandemic. It is outrageous, absolutely outrageous, incredibly irresponsible, unforgivable.”
The partisan antics may have obscured the bad news that the trend lines, after close to two years, were once again headed in the wrong direction.
“We know the overwhelming majority of our new cases, new hospitalizations, and new deaths, sadly, are from among the unvaccinated…. There’s no other way really to look at these numbers. The combination of colder weather, going indoors, and then layering on top of that a uniquely American holiday, we believe that combination is what’s driving what we’re seeing here.”
He continued. “From these, we cannot let our guard down, especially if you’re – if you aren’t vaccinated and if you’re in a crowd, whether it be in a store buying presents or in a bar or a restaurant or at a party, it is safest and wisest to mask up, especially if you do not know the vaccination status of those around you.”