New Jersey State Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) today criticized the Murphy administration following news that the Eatontown Motor Vehicle Commission would be closed for two weeks after an employee tested positive for COVID-19.
Senator Declan O’Scanlon said the Murphy Administration is relying on outdated, unnecessary policies when the Motor Vehicle Commission closes a facility for two weeks or longer after an employee tests positive for COVID. (WikiMedia Commons)
“The fact that we are still somehow closing MVC locations for two weeks for quarantining and ‘deep cleaning’ after one employee tests positive is absolutely outrageous,” said O’Scanlon. “Nowhere is still observing such heavy-handed, unscientific policies . . . not Home Depot, not supermarkets, not car dealerships, not doctors’ offices, not restaurants . . . no one. And none of these entities is suffering any ill health impact.
“One must ask what rock have the people continuing these policies been hiding under?!? Perpetuation of foolish policies like these – in addition to pool operation rules and the other 2,000 pages of outdated executive orders, rules, regulations and restrictions – absolutely crushes any confidence one might have in the people making these calls. It’s as if they actually believe the Governor’s ludicrous April 1 predictions where he expressed the ‘most likely’ scenario that – against all vaccine and seasonal data and trend lines we had at the time – we could expect to see 4,500 cases a day at this point.
“What have we seen? 459! The administration’s prediction was 10x higher than what we’re seeing! Maybe if you live in that warped, terrifying anti-science and data world you could justify shutting everything down every time there was even one positive COVID test, but that’s not the real world. And it hasn’t been for more than a year,” continued O’Scanlon.
“Supermarkets and stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot have hundreds of workers with hundreds more customers in their stores daily, yet they don’t shut down whole locations. Somehow, the brain trust in Trenton has decided that this New Jersey agency is the only entity that must shut down for two weeks with every positive test.
“And what’s with the continuation of expensive, and virtually useless ‘deep cleaning’?!? We’ve known for months that this is all about airborne droplets/aerosols. We don’t need anything but regular cleaning at this point,” O’Scanlon noted.
“The negative impact on residents from a location closing can be devastating. People have waited for months trying to get scarce appointments and they may have taken time off work. Now they’ll have to wait even longer and they run the risk of being pulled over or having their car impounded for lack of registration; both insanely costly consequences of New Jersey’s draconian, outdated and unnecessary closure and quarantine rules.”
The CDC guidelines state that individuals who have been vaccinated do not have to quarantine if they are exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
“On April 29, the MVC commissioner informed me that all MVC employees who wanted the vaccine would be vaccinated by May 7. Between the number of employees vaccinated and those who weren’t at work with the positive person, or those not working anywhere near the COVID-positive employee . . . it must be near 90 percent of the employees who weren’t impacted.
“In addition to the mitigating impact of the vaccination rate there are procedures in place, distancing rules, and other policies specifically to prevent mass exposure and the need for closures. Yet one employee tests positive and MVC indicates a complete and total lack of confidence in all of those scientifically founded mitigation efforts and closes for two weeks? It’s beyond absurd,” continued O’Scanlon.
“We cannot continue to paralyze our facilities and operations because we have a few people in charge who are completely out of touch and terrified.”
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