TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey Phil Murphy today was accused of bullying children into wearing facemasks in schools across the state and has failed to announce a metric or target goal of vaccination rate to drop the in-school mandates. Murphy has routinely said student masking is required until vaccinations among students increases but has never given a target goal publicly as to when that mandate would end if reached.
News 12 reporter Alex Zdan challenged Murphy, asking him if he was bullying children into wearing masks. Murphy first laughed at Zdan when the question was asked.
Murphy said the metrics of measuring COVID-19 have not changed and said he has spoken to Anthony Fauci about COVID-19 data, but then said it’s not a scare tactic.
“I don’t think it’s a care, you got kids sadly 0 to 4 who are not eligible for vaccines, bless their hearts and we have sadly lost 8 precious kids in that range,” Murphy said. “That’s not how we view it.”
Murphy did not identify a solid metric or goal to be reached to unmask children in public schools, leading many to believe that the decision, like many others throughout the pandemic will be an arbitrary one by the governor.
“There’s no one number, but I want to get that lifted,” Murphy said, adding that children may go maskless by the end of the 2022 school year, again offering no scienced based evidence or goal that needs to be achieved for that decision.