Opinion: The State of NJ Seems Desperate for You to Get the Vaccine

During their thrice weekly Coronavirus press conference, the Murphy Administration was happy to point out that the vaccines have a 99.94% success rate. Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli using that figure to show that "breakthrough cases" were very rare.

Breakthrough cases are those people who have been vaccinated but still tested positive for COVID-19.

Persichilli indicated that they were very rare in New Jersey. Of the 92 vaccinated people who tested positive, only 30 ended up in the hospital. She was sure to point out that those that were hospitalized were reported to suffer from COVID-19 illness.

Where was that nuance and differentiation before the vaccine, when anyone who passed away WITH the virus was counted as someone who died OF the virus? Now that the state is desperate to reach the 4.7 million number of vaccinated New Jersey residents, they want to put as positive a spin on the vaccine as possible.

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As you may recall last year Dr. Deborah Birx of the National Coronavirus Task Force admitted that people who died of other causes but tested positive for COVID were listed as COVID deaths, unlike many other countries around the world. Seemingly very little attention was paid to that remark in the mainstream press.

State officials seem to be desperate to get as many people vaccinated as possible and want to use every angle and statistic to convince those still reluctant to roll up their sleeves. TV and radio ads abound featuring people from every demographic trying to convince those remaining to get the shot.

You can see the towns in each county that have the most and least vaccinated persons by clicking here. Many people, including myself, wonder if it's really about public safety or raw numbers for power, control and monetary incentives.

Maybe some of us are infected with a really bad case of cynicism of government. If there's a vaccine for that, I'm not taking that one either.