New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli is the latest health official using a rare COVID-19 in the Massachusetts town of Provincetown as a reason for New Jerseyans to use caution and gave clues as to what could be next for our state.
Provincetown, Massachusetts is the new rally cry for America’s progressive liberals and mask mandates. The town is the epicenter of the Cape Cod LBGTQ community it is going through a major COVID-19 “breakthrough” outbreak.
It all started around the 4th of July as the town was packed, bars were full, partying was in full force and everyone was told if they were vaccinated, they could get back to life as normal.
And like most Americans, they did get back to normal, but then something happened. The fully vaccinated were contracting COVID-19 at a much higher than normal rate than anywhere else in the country. The numbers in Provincetown weren’t synching with the rest of the country. In fact, to date, it’s the only town in America that has experienced such a high volume of breakout COVID-19 cases.
That didn’t stop the media and the left from seizing the opportunity to use Provincetown as the canary in the coal mine for the latest round of mask mandates, vaccination mandates and possible future forced closures.
As of July 31, 965 cases have been reported in connection with the Provincetown outbreak. According to the CDC, nearly three-quarters of those infected were fully vaccinated. This week, New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judith used the Provincetown outbreak as a foreshadowing of a looming policy shift for New Jerseyans.
“In July 2021 following multiple large public events in Provincetown, Massachusetts, 469 COVID-19 cases were identified among individuals who had traveled to the town during July 3rd to July 17th. Nearly three-quarters of the cases occurred in those who were fully vaccinated,” Persichilli said. “Testing identified the Delta variant in 90% of the 19 reported attending densely packed indoor and outdoor events at venues that included bars, restaurants, guest houses, and rental homes.”
New Jersey is not Provincetown, no matter how much Persichilli and Phil Murphy says it is.
While most in New Jersey aren’t partying shoulder to shoulder in bars and attending huge house parties, Persichilli warns we could be next anyway, even if you’re vaccinated…and even if you’re not packing the bars shoulder to shoulder night after night. You should be scared, not so much from experiencing a Provincetown like outbreak but because Judy and Phil are on the case.
“The Delta variant, again, demonstrates how unrelenting this virus is. It’s estimated that it is much more infectious as the original strain of COVID-19. Last week, CDC released data showing that the Delta infection resulted in similarly high SARS CoV-2 viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals,” Persichilli added. “High viral loads suggest an increased risk of transmission and raises concern that unlike other variants, vaccinated people infected with Delta can transmit the virus. This data informed CDC’s updated recommendation that everyone should wear a mask in indoor public settings in areas of substantial and high transmission regardless of your vaccination status. Once again, we strongly encourage you to mask up.”
Now, Provincetown is fighting back against the misleading reports in the media and against the left using their town as the rallying cry to go back into another COVID-19 lockdown.
“The vaccines are working,” said Provincetown Town Manager Alex Morse who said the media is blowing it out of proportion. “Of the 900 cases related to the Provincetown cluster, there have been no deaths, 7 hospitalizations, and the symptoms are largely mild. Our positivity peaked at 15% on 7/15 and was only 4.8% yesterday. The outbreak is contained and Provincetown is safe.”
Morse also said that his town has implemented indoor masking, but it’s not having a noticeable effect either way on their outbreak.
“Indoor masking is helpful during a spike but not a sustainable long-term solution. Vaccination is. More and more businesses here are mandating employee and customer vaccination,” he added.
In just a few weeks, the Provincetown outbreak has subsided and there were no reported deaths and just 7 people required a visit to the hospital. Now, the Murphy administration is using half of the story to push their latest mask agenda to the population of New Jersey.
All that is being accomplished by the administration’s fear-mongering is creating more vaccine hesitancy and giving the anti-vaccination movement ammunition to use against vaccination.