TRENTON, NJ – Governor Phil Murphy has often said he would support a federal vaccination passport, identification that will allow residents to show proof of vaccination, but said as far as New Jersey is concerned, “We’re not there yet.”
That’s because the vaccination passport could be a tool used to discriminate and the very notion of a vaccine passport would be a discriminatory measure that could even violate state law.
“My biggest concern – and again, I’m where I’ve been the past couple of months,” Murphy said. “I’m open-minded to them, but there are huge equity challenges that we still are dealing with.”
According to data released by the governor’s office, many of the states vaccination deserts are cities with high minority population. Although mainstream media and Murphy’s Democrat party points to white Republicans and conservatives as the vaccination holdouts, New Jersey data suggests otherwise.
Large numbers of residents in New Jersey’s underserved inner cities would essentially be excluded from activities that require vaccinations.
“We’re making a good amount of progress, but we’re not there yet. If you magically put a vaccine passport into place today, you would be – even if you weren’t intending to, you’d be discriminating,” the governor said. “I just don’t want to – I don’t sign up for – I’m not going to sign up for that. I think could we theoretically at some point get there? I hope we can. It’s a reason why I listed the cities today that our campaign is not going to endorse – Camden, Trenton, Bayonne, Jersey City, Passiac, overwhelmingly communities of color, overwhelmingly black and brown communities. We still have work to do. Again, good progress but not there yet.”