N.J. students in grades K-12 must wear masks at start of school year, Murphy to announce

@Tired of it all – I agree with you 100% in a fully vaccinated scenario.

The mask mandate should be used to address unvaccinated/mixed classrooms…

Hey Fedupflyer

FYI, not only am I vaccinated but 100% of my (college) students are vaccinated as well or they don’t get onto campus. So here we’ll sit all vaccinated and wearing masks. My class requires quite a bit of student participation in addition to my teaching and speaking through a mask is a huge problem. Again WE’RE ALL VACCINATED yet we’re all sentenced to wear a mask until some yet to be determined date.

We’re moving out of NJ in a few months. First, the bill to push LGBTQ curricula, then the CRT for K-12, now mask mandates.
Done. Leaving Liberal Hellhole.

Just so we’re clear, the big upsetting thing is having a kid wear a mask with the intent of protecting either them or others from getting sick. It’s not some grab for power by the government, it’s a mask. If numbers are going up and the goal is to avoid getting back to those days in early and mid 2020, why would anyone care to oppose this? Kids in school are required to have other vaccines and this even isn’t that argument, it’s just a piece of cloth. The state also requires shoes and shirts in public buildings, after these people get the oppression of the mask overturned, are we going barefoot in the stores?

Hey @JT, I’d also do a beer with you as I don’t wear a tinfoil hat, or don three masks, and certainly do not sit in my basement all day – I live and enjoy Morristown and yes even in these heady time enjoy frequenting places like the Homestead (yes my current favourite (not a spelling mistake for me) as it is very airy, large and good service) but also other bars and restaurants around town…

I am a proponent of reducing risk where we can – and yes, cars, guns and other factors all present risk that I hope over time will reduce. As far as covid goes let’s work on mitigating those risks that are manageable and hopefully short term if we act together.

I wasn’t suggesting covid will get to zero any time soon. I was proposing we can get it to the point where the R-rate will mean it is contained. I suspect for many years to come anyone who agrees with vaccines will be getting a booster with their flu shot…

You’d be better served looking at the current death rates per 100,000 not longer cumulative counts – it is well know the NE and other populated areas suffered pre-vaccine. Those number look very different now. Even if they didn’t – by definition, encouraging unvaccinated people to wear masks would be a great outcome instead of people searching for and encouraging excuses through their children.

NJ deaths are down to 0.07 per 100,00 while Florida is at 0.57. Let’s translate that in to numbers, 122 daily deaths in Florida (Rank 1), compared with 6 in NJ (Rank 40). The more we can all work together to see the improvements in lowering the death rates in places like NJ and NY the sooner we can get those R-rates down as close to zero as is practicable…

Hey fedupflyer, I merely point out the data for the state of NJ, which by the way, has the highest per capita covid death rate in the country. You can risk assess that however you choose, but getting to Covid zero is an illogical pipe dream. In 2019, close to 2,400 children in the 13-19 age group were killed in automobile accidents. By your rationale, children should be forbidden from riding in cars and we should probably consider banning them all together.

Sorry @Tired of it all – you didn’t address unvaccinated ‘kids’ and the impact they can have from spreading the virus….

Very happy you are vaccinated – your class attendees will very likely not be the same given their age. And I’m not throwing out a well used line about other countries and masks. I am simply commenting that societies adapt…my parents never wore seatbelts as they were uncomfortable even when the law changed for many years – I never gave it a second thought as I knew it lowered the risk of death – and that included sitting in the back seat where I has seen the result of rear passengers not wearing belts being the cause of countless front seat passenger deaths – I wore a belt in the rear of cars long before it became law. I adapted to an uncomfortable seatbelt fairly quickly at the age of 12.

If you want this to continue for much longer and risk many more variants, go ahead, enable and support your unvaccinated students to be unmasked in class and take their chances with unvaccinated family at home…as I said, natural selection will prevail…as a vaccinated person that is unlikely to include you.

Sorry you are tired of it all, but so is everyone else and the sooner people get vaccinated or unvaccinated wear masks in public non-socially distanced settings the sooner we can get through this. Supporting unmasked, unvaccinated settings will inevitably keep the R number high and the risk of even more deadly mutations will also remain high.

I love when people throw out the well-used “Whole countries have historically worn masks with common cold symptoms without issue for decades.”

Yes, countries (mostly in Asia) do customarily wear masks when they have a cold, that is true. But they don’t wear them for months on end when they DON’T have a cold or illness.
I get regularly tested through my work AND had the vaccine yet I’m still supposed to wear a mask for months on end as are my (college) students.

Likewise, Stuck in NJ! Thanks, and right back at ya!

@JT that wasn’t my point. I used the national child-death figure of over 400 to highlight the number is very, very low but not ‘zero’ as many have stated so people understand there is some risk to children.

The bigger issue comes from children who get infected and pass it on to others as they are still carriers/spreaders – less of an issue if people are vaccinated, however, it becomes a real risk if the kids are asymptomatic and in contact with unvaccinated people…

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for natural selection when it comes to this debate, but I know I would have been mortified as a kid if I thought I had a passed covid on to a friend or relative and they died as a result of me believing ‘a mask is ruining my childhood (because my parents told me I could use it as an excuse) so I’m not wearing one’.

A grand total of 2 deaths in school aged children in the State of NJ per the NJ Covid dashboard.

No political figure ‘miraculously created’ a vaccine – stop politicizing this issue. Publicly traded companies employing scientists/virologists/etc. made the vaccine(s), period.

I very much encourage getting the vaccine and while I feel those who decry it are barely one step removed from flat earthers, I totally support their free choice in the decision…I also agree 100% with any business or organization that also has a vaccine-only policy – it is also their ‘choice’.

If parents stopped projecting their mask fears on kids there would barely be an issue with mask wearing in schools. Whole countries have historically worn masks with common cold symptoms without issue for decades. For the record Walmart, Home Depot, McDonalds, Kroger, Starbucks, Costco, Sams Club and Target (to name a few) have all (re)introduced mask policies. People who don’t agree with this can choose not so use these companies…the same applies on planes, trains and other facilities like schools etc.

Parents, please get over your mask scaremongering that it is ruining their lives and your kids will thank you in the long run – 72,000 children caught covid last week. No, they are unlikely to die (although 400+ have) but they can pass it on to others and especially older vaccine deniers who are far more likely to suffer compared with vaccinated people. Kids are adaptable and will only have issues that you as parents encourage, enable and facilitate. Next time you get on NJ transit try not wearing a mask and see how long it is before you are removed from the train…if you don’t agree with masking in schools it is simple – remove your kids as you are the problem not the mask policy…

Oh, and for the record no one is ‘Stuck in NJ’ – DeSantis and Florida is ready, willing and able to accept you tomorrow….I think you’d fit right in…

Ignore the conspiracies and fake news. Trump pulled off a miracle and got us extremely safe and effective vaccines. Sadly, vaccine hesitant people have allowed Delta to take hold and we have to return to masks to slow the spread. H1N1 killed 12000 people the first year. COVID killed 400000. Not even a comparison. Health care workers continue to get sick and many have died caring for people who won’t mask, social distance or get vaccinated. People have rights, businesses need to be open and our kids should not have to wear masks in school. There is one solution. The vaccines work and are safe. Get one. Get your friends and family vaccinated.

Very sad to see so many people not understanding science and not caring about our children. Doomed civilization.

Amazing that public health has been weaponized by these right wing fringe groups.

Snowflakes, all of them.

Jeff you are a great man. I always enjoy your comments. I wish we could meet up and have a beer.

Let’s be honest – kids are at huge risk for this killer disease. They’re dropping like flies. I would require them all to be vaxed – it doesn’t matter that this is an experimental vaccine and there has been no long-term testing. The effects of reduced breathing all day and the effects of inhaling all of the mask materials and chemicals? Nothing to worry about!
I don’t know why they aren’t requiring three masks at all times – especially when they are outside.

Aren’t we trying to keep everyone safe from spreading the virus?
From the article:
“This comes after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last month it’s recommending everyone in K-12 schools in America to wear masks as the delta variant drives up COVID-19 numbers across the country. The American Academy of Pediatrics also recommends face coverings. Plus, the New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union — and a major Murphy supporter — has backed the CDC’s guidance on masks.”

This state is dead. It’s being run by a facist and war pigs at the NJEA; neither of which can engage is any form of critical thinking.

First come the masks, then forced vaccinations, then CRT. What’s next?

The ship is sinking!!!!

Our Governor has got to go! First he punts the decision on masks to the district and now he goes back on his order and says masks for all students and staff. Flip flop decision making at its worse! Masks are not going to stop any virus from affecting others. Children are not the spreaders of COVID, its variant or the variant of a variant (as I am reading there are naming them faster than hurricanes!). The message was ‘get vaccinated to protect yourself from death!!’ That scared the bejesus out of the old biddies and everyone like cows ran to get injected with technology that is less than 10 years old and never used or fully tested in this capacity. Now the message is, ‘wear a mask regardless of your vaccination status!!’ So did all the crazies who spewed the original message get it wrong??? Was the vaccination a waste of time??? Why are we continuing to be led like cattle down this insanity path and follow all the mixed messages that are given without taking a step back and asking does this really make sense???? What kind of society are we turning into that we believe whatever anyone says??? Because the old biddies are freaked out about dying, we have to suffer? When H1N1 was spreading in 2009, which only affected children and young adults, why didn’t anyone freak out then??? Schools didn’t close, masks weren’t mandated, vaccinations weren’t shoved into arms… why is that??? Oh, it is because the old biddies weren’t affected so they didn’t give a crap!! Those with money or power could care less for their butts were okay and unharmed. Pathetic!! You all should be ashamed of yourselves at how stupid you all are.

Wow another flip flop decision. Completely unnecessary and based on absolutely nothing but fear. He continues to ruin childhoods and livelihoods. How sad to be using children as pawns. The media needs to call him out on his fake numbers and risk level map colors. Does anyone else remember how we needed two weeks? Then masks? Then we just had to hold on for the vaccine? All lies.