New Jersey Governor: State Won’t Return to “New Normal” Until Vaccine

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is warning that his state isn’t going to adjust to what he’s calling a “new normal” until the scientific community develops a working vaccine for coronavirus.

Murphy laid out his prediction for his state in a Facebook post on Monday.

Until a proven vaccine is widely available, we cannot firmly enter the ‘new normal,’ when life will once again return to all our workplaces, downtowns, and main streets,” the Democratic governor warned.

Governor Murphy’s insistence on the development of a vaccine to return to full normalcy is a reaching requirement. There’s no reason to confidently assume that medical researchers are going to develop a vaccine for the virus anytime soon. None of the other coronavirus known to infect humans have vaccines. The 2002 SARS outbreak, a disease related to COVID-19, drew considerable attention from the medical and scientific community, and a vaccine was never developed.

New Jersey is in the process of a phased reopening that resembles the strategy utilized by other blue states with serious outbreaks of the disease. The state is approaching a stage 2 of its reopening plan, which allows reopening of “safeguarded restaurants with outdoor seating, limited personal care, and possibly indoor dining, museums, and libraries, all with significantly reduced capacity.

California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom has also stated that he doesn’t see his state going back to normal without the development of a working vaccine. “We’re not going back to normal,” he said during a a May 5 press briefing. “It’s a new normal with adaptations and modifications, until we get to immunity and a vaccine.” President Trump, however, has made it clear that the country will eventually have to plan to return to normalcy without the development of a totally hypothetical vaccine.

Democratic governors hoping for an eternal cessation of everyday life may find their wishes negated by the will of a public wearing thin on patience.

 

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