UNION CITY – The topic was rental assistance, but Phil Murphy was confronted this morning by sign-waving vaccine opponents.

As he spoke at a bill-signing event in this very blue city and county, the governor deviated a bit from the agenda to give a COVID update.

As he provided the latest details on new cases and hospitalizations, he again urged people to get vaccinated.

It was then that the governor took note of vaccine opponents who were present at the event. Some carried signs reading, “No Forced Injections.”

“You’ve lost your minds,” he said, adding that the critics were the “ultimate knuckleheads.”

Murphy was not done.

He asked his detractors to “look in the mirror,” and said their views are causing people to die.

Also on hand was local congressman Albio Sires who picked up on the same theme.

“When people say ‘don’t get vaccinated,’ it makes me sick,” he said. “It makes me sick.”

The vaccine debate has ratcheted up as COVID numbers are spiking, presumably because of the Delta variant.

In recent weeks, Murphy and other state health officials have begun talking about a “pandemic of the un-vaccinated.”