With COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and transmission rates rising steadily, the issue of a government directed vaccination requirement for the private sector workforce not currently covered by the mandate has re-emerged as a potential response.

Gov. Phil Murphy has resisted expanding his emergency order beyond state employees, school personnel and health care facility workers relying instead on individual voluntary compliance and encouraging employers to implement vaccination requirements.

While his assertion that a vaccination mandate remains on the table as his Administration continues to struggle with the resurgent pandemic, it is highly unlikely he’ll take that step in the absence of overwhelmed hospitals and a genuine threat that patients diagnosed with the COVID virus will be turned away or denied treatment because of overcrowding.

Daily testing has reached a seven-month high while hospitalizations have exceeded 1,000 for nearly two weeks. Since the first case was diagnosed in March of 2020, more than 1.1 million New Jerseyans have been infected and nearly 29,000 have died.

President Biden’s order to administer the vaccine to some 100 million individuals has been challenged successfully in the courts and its implementation blocked pending additional legal proceedings.

Any similar directive from Murphy will certainly confront the same challenges.

Since vaccines became available nearly a year ago, 70 percent of eligible New Jerseyans have achieved full vaccination status.

It is time to concede that the remaining 30 percent of the eligible population is unpersuadable and will continue to resist the vaccination protocol.

More than six million New Jerseyans have acted prudently to protect themselves and their families and it is time to face reality and move on from those that haven’t.

If, after the passage of time and in the face of clear and convincing medical evidence that the vaccines are safe and sickness and death can be averted, resistance has not budged appreciably, no amount of persuasion, cajoling or offering incentives will change minds.

It is time to recognize that vaccine refusal is implacable, that justifications will not crumble under further government pressure.

It is not within government’s normal reactions in times of ongoing crises to admit it has failed to use every resource at its command to protect its citizens, to, in effect, tell them “you’re on your own.”

We are, though, there now.

The emergence of the omicron variant of the virus and the speculation that additional and potentially more lethal mutation strains will become common has place added pressure on government and public health leaders to stay ahead of the curve and avert a massive uptick in infections.

After a lull during the summer months, the pandemic resurgence has been attributed to cooler temperatures keeping more people indoors and to gatherings for holiday observances.

Murphy will continue to urge individual responsibility and compliance with mask wearing, social distancing, and avoiding large gatherings.

His pleas to the unvaccinated to put their reservations aside in the larger interest of protecting themselves and others with whom they come in contact will continue to fall on deaf ears, however.

Displaying proof of vaccination to gain admittance to restaurants, theaters and athletic and entertainment venues will continue to be a part of the Administration’s response as well.

Murphy will strive to avoid a repeat of the early days of the pandemic — lockdowns, school closures, business failures, restrictions on social activities and gatherings, cancellations of virtually all audience heavy events.

The costs — fiscal as well as psychological — were unprecedented. People likened their experiences to hostage taking, captives in their own homes, barred from traveling or engaging in everyday normal activities of daily life.

While Murphy has continued to enjoy majority support for his handling of the pandemic, criticism has not been lacking.

Acting unilaterally without legislative input or approval drew pushback along with accusations that he reacted too slowly in relaxing restrictions and that some were unevenly imposed.

Now, as the worrisome upward trends continue, Murphy will be put to the test again and may well confront demands for an across the board vaccination mandate, no matter the political implications involved.

It is not in the Administration’s best interest, though, to accede to the demands and Murphy is well aware of that.

And, as difficult as it may be, he must concede that a portion of the citizenry that he is expected to serve will, as a result of their own recalcitrance, be left to fend for themselves in a potentially life-threatening environment.

Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University.