LAKEWOOD, NJ – New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has expressed concern over the low rate of vaccination across some of New Jersey’s largest and most densely populated cities. While the media and Democrat party narrative for the anti-vaccine movement focus on white Republican-based families, the reality on the ground in New Jersey is that the anti-vaccination trend is being powered by the inner cities. The other reality is that the cities in New Jersey with the least percentage of vaccinated residents are also the cities with the highest percentage of voters who voted to elect Phil Murphy for governor in 2017.
Among those cities, East Orange, Camden, Lakewood and others, those cities voted overwhelmingly for Phil Murphy in the 2017 election.
Camden voted 89.1% for Murphy. East Orange voted 95% in favor of Murphy and the majority of Lakewood residents voted for Phil Murphy in 2017. New Brunswick voted in favor of Murphy by a margin of 83%.
“There’s no naming or shaming here. We are working with these communities in partnership. We continue to work, as I say, with local officials in these communities among many others across the state to get them the resources they need to move these vaccination rates up to where they should be and where we know they can be,” Murphy said.
The list of cities with populations greater than 10,000 residents but with vaccination rates at 50% or lower is now down to just 10.
