‘Somewhere Between Frustrating and Angry’
For some reason, not enough nursing home staffers are getting the COVID vaccine.
“It is somewhere between frustrating and angry for us,” Gov. Phil Murphy said today.
Recent data suggests less than 60 percent of staffers at long-term care facilities are getting shots in the arm.
This certainly seems like an odd development, considering the importance of preventing elderly people from getting the virus. Moreover, health care workers were eligible to get shots before the mass of people were.
As an overview, virus-related deaths in nursing homes have been trending down, so this occurrence in itself may not portend disaster.
Yet, as the governor said, it certainly can be concerning for relatives of nursing home residents and the residents themselves.
Murphy said residents and their relatives should ask nursing homes about staff vaccination rates, saying that’s something they have a right to know.
What can the state do about this?
The governor seems reluctant to mandate that nursing home staff get vaccinated, noting that he hopes common sense will prevail.
But he warned – presumably – “At a certain point our patience runs thin.”
That problem aside, the governor was upbeat on getting back to normal rather quickly.
He spoke of plans to announce “aggressive” steps in that regard in about 10 days. And responding to a question, he said he expects the Jets and Giants to play before sold-out football stadiums this fall. There was no attendance at NFL games in New Jersey last year.
The governor insists his decisions are not politically-based, but Republicans long have been calling for all pandemic restrictions to be lifted. Such a call came most recently from the three Republicans looking to oust three Democratic legislators in LD-11.
Lori Annetta, the GOP Senate candidate in the district, said that “Murphy continues to drop the ball with
his handling of the pandemic and New Jersey residents, businesses and children continue to suffer from his lack of leadership.”
This has been standard Republican fare for some time, and there’s certainly support for this view in some quarters. But you have to wonder how far the condemnation of Murphy goes.
A Monmouth Poll just last week showed that almost two-thirds of the people in the state support how the governor has handled the pandemic. That can change over the next six months, but it doesn’t seem as if the strong Republican criticism is traveling very far.
As of today, Murphy said 3.6 million residents are fully vaccinated and that 900,000 have gotten one shot.
Still, vaccine interest has ebbed a bit and last week, the governor announced a plan for some bars to give the newly-vaccinated a free mug of beer.
How about going further? Why not pay them?
“Are we willing to bribe them?” Murphy said, interpreting the question.
He didn’t rule it out.
“Everything’s on the table,” he said.
Beer and cash – there’s an inducement for you.
We appalled and totally in shock that a statement would be uttered that “the Governor dropped the ball in the pandemic”. This statement is so far from the truth, not just truth but the facts on records. As a majority of the state agrees that our Governor (leaving a sick bed after a major health incident) picked up the reins and with his dedicated team moved through this pandemic with only the health and welfare of the New Jerseyans in mind and soul.
We are fortunate for the leadership, no true and dedicated leadership of Governor Philip D. Murphy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bob Knapp, Jersey City
We still need answers as to what happened in our nursing homes. I’m not saying anybody’s lying about the numbers, but it appears NJ made the same knuckle-head moves as Cuomo in NY. Nobody wants to talk about this, and the media doesn’t seem too anxious to uncover what happened. Maybe they’ll get to it after they figure out who hired Al Alvarez?