“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  These words, spoken by John F. Kennedy during his inaugural address, are among the most famous uttered in American political history.  They exemplify the self-sacrificing attitude of a generation which came out of the Second World War, hardship, death, rationing, and assumed leadership roles at the dawn of a decade which saw the rise of women’s lib, race riots in the cities, rock and roll on the radio, war in Vietnam, and American footprints on the moon.

Half a century later, Americans are more divided than ever in living memory, especially on matters such as what they should do—together—to defeat the pandemic.  President Kennedy called upon Americans to ask what they could do for their country.  In this case, it is quite clear—their country has asked them to wear masks, stay home, keep distant, and then asked them to get vaccinated.

As 2021 progressed and cases began declining, Trenton eased almost all restrictions imposed on the populace and those who were vaccinated could almost return to a 2019 style of living.  Those unvaccinated were asked to continue wearing masks and take extra precautions.  Governor Murphy was appearing at events and functions without a mask, setting the example of what freedom regained looked like.  With respect to schools, he said that school districts would be able to determine whether or not they would have masked students and faculty.  The governor has been adamant that schools resume in-person instruction after a difficult year of virtual or remote learning.

Things were looking good.  Nevertheless, Murphy has maintained the right to reimpose restrictions as needed. He had let the genie out of the bottle but he was still going to hold onto the cork, so to speak.

For a while, politically, it seemed like the largely-Republican arguments against the governor had begun to slip away.  They could no longer use business and social restrictions as a weapon, only for what had already happened, despite the fact the governor still maintains a majority of support in public opinion polls.  For a candidate like Jack Ciattarelli, who has made a seemingly unauthentic appeal to the MAGA-right which he derided in 2015, the opportunity to shift the conversation would have been a welcome and beneficial one.  More conventional topics where Republicans did well—taxation, spending, fiscal policy—could have eaten away at Murphy and given Ciattarelli some more traction.  Democrats like to point out that they enjoy a million more registered voters than Republicans, but New Jersey has sent GOP executives to the governor’s desk regardless.  For Ciattarelli, as the state’s health improved, so would his chances, in theory.  Life looked like it was starting to return to normal and masks, that ubiquitous symbol of this crisis, were becoming less commonly seen.  This was smoothing over some of the 2020 masking problems which were hopefully going to be left in the past.

While the public in an election year especially has a short attention span, they still have one.  Last year, mixed messages from the CDC may have caused irreparable harm to public confidence in both state institutions as well as the nature of the emergency itself.  In the beginning, the public was told only sick people need to wear a mask.  This allowed for limited PPE to get to the hospitals and doctors who needed it most, while manufacturing and supplies played a frantic game of catch-up.  Had there been an abundance of PPE initially and the public was able to mask-up from the start, it is likely that thousands of New Jerseyans who died might still be alive.  But there is little value in speculating the “what ifs” at this juncture.

Many New Jerseyans began making their own masks in the face of the shortages.  Online, groups like “Sew The Curve Flat” and others appeared, teaching folks at home how to sew their own masks and make them to be donated to hospitals in crisis mode.  The mask became the symbol of the year 2020.

Almost immediately, the mask took on a political connotation.  Then-President Donald Trump was highly reluctant to wear a mask and only did so by eventually giving into the recommendations of federal medical experts.  The tone from the top was set.

In New Jersey, when COVID-positive patients were sent to long-term care facilities, ostensibly to free up hospital beds, disaster struck, resulting in the infection and deaths of some of the most vulnerable segments of the population.  It was a mistake that would be one of the blackest marks on the Murphy administration’s handling of the virus and become a political truncheon Republicans would use against the governor thereafter.

Then President Trump announced he had tested positive for COVID on October 2 and was hospitalized.  Mark Meadows, Chief of Staff, reported that the president’s condition was very serious.  White House aides were worried he would need a ventilator, his condition being far more concerning than initially suspected.  Elderly and overweight, the president fit the bill for an at-risk patient.  But thanks to being pumped full of drugs such as Dexamethasone, Remdesivir, and given around-the-clock care, Trump averted personal disaster.  He left Walter Reed Hospital a few days later, took off his mask outside the White House to salute his helicopter, and told the nation “don’t worry about COVID” and that it should not “dominate your life.”

Such messaging did few favors for the State of New Jersey where masking was being further viewed through a political lens.

The vaccine was a game-changer.  Finally, there was a tool available to the public to protect themselves—it was just a matter of convincing them to trust it and take personal action.  Cases began declining in the spring of 2021 and most restrictions were lifted.

However, viruses mutate with time and with each new mutation, the situation changes.  The rise of the Delta variant and its increased transmissibility has revived calls for mask wearing and both state as well as federal officials have urged those who are unvaccinated to do so.  President Biden referred to the fourth wave as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”—a phrase parroted across the country.  At the same time, reluctance to returning to masks has once more become a political hot potato.  The most controversial aspect?  Mandates.

Governor Murphy has mandated that large sections of workers in the health field be vaccinated by September 7.  It would seem to be common sense that those who work among the infected should be protected as best as possible.  Nevertheless, the use of governmental coercion over voluntarism with respect to injections has stirred up backlash about bodily autonomy and freedom of choice, usually the stomping ground of the left.

On July 8, a group of New Jersey state senators joined virtually with health officials and others to discuss the efficacy of masking children.  To boil a long discussion down, the officials advocated that people get vaccinated but were of the view that masking for children was unnecessary.

The State Department of Health as well as the NJEA took a different position and supported the governor’s decision to mandate masking in schools.

“We support the Murphy Administration’s decision to follow public health guidance and require masking for students and staff in public schools as the new school year begins,” the NJEA said in a statement on August 7.  “It is the prudent, responsible course of action in the face of the resurgence of COVID-19 across the state.

“This is not what anyone hoped for to begin this school year. However, we cannot waver in our commitment to protecting the health and safety of students and staff as the COVID-19 pandemic is surging. Above all, we remain committed to providing our students with the best possible educational experience this year. They deserve it and we are determined to make sure they have it.”

Even before Governor Murphy ordered that the 2021-2022 school year would be a masked, in-person year for all students and personnel, an organization called Free NJ Kids made up of parents and some students filed a suit against the Murphy administration.  The purpose was to preemptively prevent the governor from imposing a mask mandate on schools, which he later on did.

Calling for residents to “fight” to reclaim their “freedom,” Free NJ Kids’ website made its position clear, “Our country does not forcibly muzzle millions of healthy people, we live in a Constitutional Republic that protects our individual freedoms, requires due process & public hearings, and has legal steps before a ‘guideline’ becomes unilateral law.  The CDC is not a governing body, they are a group of unelected doctors that meet in conference rooms and issue press releases with guidance.  They are not the law.”

It goes without saying that doctors become qualified after meeting their education and practice requirements, not winning elections.  Plumbers are not elected, either, but may still make recommendations as to how to fix pipes.  The image of physicians gathering in an exclusive room, telling people what to do makes for some fanciful fearmongering that appeals to those desperate for confirmation bias.

The problem remains that children under 12 are not yet eligible to get a vaccine, so the only protection they have is from adults actively taking their health and wellbeing into consideration.

“The evidence is overwhelming that vaccines are safe and highly effective at slowing and preventing the spread of COVID and at reducing the severity of the rare breakthrough cases,” the NJEA said. “There is no better way to protect our school communities, including those students not yet eligible for vaccination, than for all who are eligible and medically able to get vaccinated.”

Masks and vaccinations go hand in hand as far as public policy goes.  To look at the other side of the coin, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whom many on the right look to as a possible presidential candidate, has ordered the state to investigate school districts which are not in compliance with a state ban on mask mandates for schools.  An executive order even threatens school funding for those districts compelling students and staff to mask up.  This comes at a time when Florida and Texas are leading the nation in new COVID cases and, according to ABC, 440 Palm Beach County school children have had to quarantine just as the school year has begun—and this is a district which has required masking unless parents specifically opt out.

“Fortunately, our numbers are a fraction of those in many other states, most of which have significantly lower vaccination rates,” Governor Murphy said after announcing vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals should wear a mask in indoors settings “with increased risk” variables.  “Should our numbers reach those levels, we reserve the right to take more drastic action, including a statewide mask mandate.  We have crushed this virus repeatedly like no other state in the nation, and we are proud to boast among the country’s highest vaccination rates. But at this point, given where our metrics are now, we feel the best course of action is to strongly encourage every New Jerseyan, and every visitor to our state, to take personal responsibility and mask up indoors when prudent.”

Murphy is no DeSantis and for Ciattarelli to try to mold himself as a Florida Republican would almost assuredly guarantee electoral defeat, especially as cases increase.  Florida’s leadership might be fine with skyrocketing virus cases, and they enjoy a much larger hospital infrastructure than New Jersey to absorb that, but the Garden State cannot.

Masking is the victim of inconsistent messaging from institutional authorities as well as the populist demand for the democratization of expertise.  In other words, with the individual venerated as and simply by virtue of being, anyone’s personal opinion must be given the same respect and deference as an expert’s training and experience.  More important still, an actual virologist and someone self-trained at “YouTube University” both carry the same weight at the ballot box.

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”—the people of New Jersey have been asked to do quite a bit.  At first, they were asked to stay at home.  Then they were asked to wear masks and keep distant.  They were asked to educate their children remotely.  Then they were asked to get vaccinated.  Now they are being asked to mask up once more as the virus changes.  This is not a problem for some people whereas for others who have relished the brief return to normalcy, it represents a manipulation by the state which they hotly resent.  Both Murphy and Ciattarelli call for “personal responsibility” in tackling the problem—the former by following state guidelines, the latter by trusting their own judgment.  Whether or not that will fuel sufficient reaction at the polls to oust Murphy is unlikely, but not impossible.