The Jaffe Briefing - August 24, 2021
STATEWIDE – If you work with kids in New Jersey, get vaccinated. That’s the latest directive from Gov. Phil Murphy, following news leaked last week that he would be requiring all people working in schools – public, private, parochial, charter, renaissance, preschools or whatever else we aren’t recalling – to be fully vaccinated. And for the knuckleheads who flatly refuse a jab? They should expect to be tested once, twice or even more each week for COVID. The deadline is Oct. 18 for everyone to be vaccinated, although this mandate should have obviously been set earlier so that the deadline would mesh with the first day of school. But, whatever, the message is now clear: If you are an administrator, a teacher, a groundskeeper, a lunch lady, a sub, a coach or even the shlub assigned to chisel gum from the underside of desks: Get vaccinated asap. With the Pfizer vaccine now having full FDA approval, there’s just no excuse.
STATEWIDE – And it’s not just the schools. There is mounting pressure within the business community for workers to get vaccinated. The New Jersey Chamber of Commerce is requiring its staff to get a shot, as well as anyone attending their events to show proof of inoculation or a very recent negative test result. There’s more fuel on the fire from the White House, where President Joe Biden is calling on all private companies to “step up” with vaccine mandates to reach many more millions of hold-outs around the country. Yeah, it is bold, telling business owners in a tight labor market to demand vaccination, or else. “It only makes sense to require a vaccine,” the president says. Expect plenty of ignorant resistance, of course, because this is America, home of the free.
MIDDLETOWN – Teachers already know that bullying the students is just plain wrong, no matter how annoying they may be. Apparently, the school board here wants to be absolutely sure teachers learn that lesson when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines and face masks. Patch.com says the board is poised to prohibit its entire staff from talking about the pros and cons of either, or poking their noses into any kid’s medical status. A strongly worded resolution, up for a vote Wednesday, says the district won’t tolerate “harassment, intimidation or bullying of, or retaliation” against students about masks or vaccines “on or off school premises.” A few board members are pushing the resolution, believing the NJEA coaches teachers to pressure students - a claim the union insists is complete hogwash.
BRIEFING BREATHER
Cows moo with regional accents.
TRENTON – Although our unemployment rate is low, and businesses are begging for workers, idled New Jerseyans keep getting pandemic-related benefits. But, as New Jersey Monitor notes, that’s set to end Sept. 6 and Gov. Phil Murphy is not saying if the extra cash benefits will be extended for about 500,000 people receiving the weekly benefits. “No news on the unemployment extension,” he said during his weekly coronavirus press briefing Monday, as the state awaits “forthcoming guidance” from the feds to learn if there will still be an extra $300 weekly for claimants. It’s a tough situation, of course. There are people desperate and deserving of this lifeline for a myriad of factors, and there are others sitting on their rumps, enjoying the benefits and postponing work opportunities until the unemployment checks stop coming. No worries: the “experts” will figure this out.
STATEWIDE – Are we rushing the season? No, but Starbucks is. With temperatures soaring into the 90s today and steamy until at least next Monday, the mega-coffee chain has released its famous Pumpkin Spice Latte, beginning today, throughout New Jersey. Hell, no. Get back to us when it is serious time to select a Halloween costume.
AT THE MALL – Geoffrey the Giraffe will make his glorious come back next year to a mall near you. The beloved retail icon from our collective childhood memories will be welcoming us and our kids to new Toys R Us-brand shops inside 400 Macy’s nationwide. That includes New Jersey’s 20 remaining Macy’s mall stores. The toy chain, once based in Wayne with stores all over, went belly up and closed in 2018. But executives tell USA Today they’re now mounting a huge marketing drive to herald Geoffrey’s return and prominently feature our favorite giraffe in this year’s 95th-annual Thanksgiving Day parade. Great to have him back.
IN OTHER IMPORTANT NEWS
PORTLAND, Maine – As we sat on the beach, trying to get through the first chapter of our summer reading, there’s yet another overachiever making us look bad. That would be a 5-year-old kid nicknamed “Little Man,” as he is known on the Appalachian Trail. He is the youngest person ever to walk the entire trail, tagging along with his parents over more than 2,100 miles in 209 days. Fueled by a steady diet of Skittles on peanut butter tortillas, the boy persevered through rough terrain, bad weather and, sometimes, a little bit of boredom, being around mom and dad every moment of every day. And now the next challenge awaits: his first day of kindergarten.
THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Pluto can’t get a break on this day in 2006, downgraded to a “dwarf planet.”
WORD OF THE DAY
Emigrate – [EM-uh-grayt] – verb
Definition: To leave a country or region in order to live somewhere else.
Example: Here’s hoping many more families will have the chance to emigrate from Afghanistan.
WIT OF THE DAY
“Yes, I believe that the art of winning is through intimidation, and not necessarily do you have to speak about it.”
– Mark Spitz
BIDEN BLURB
“We will not sit by as Governors try to block or intimidate educators protecting kids against COVID-19.”
-Joe Biden
WEATHER IN A WORD
Sticky