NJ Gov. Phil Murphy announces plans to rescind reopening plans because of COVID-19 cases in OTHER states

In a lengthy thread on Twitter, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced that he was rolling back his state's reopening plans because of coronavirus cases in states other than New Jersey.

As testing has increased nationwide, a number of states have seen their total number of COVID-19 cases rise. However, the weekly death toll continues to decline, suggesting that either the disease is weakening, as some experts have suggested, or that the "spike" in cases does not indicate that the virus is actually spreading faster.

Either way, Murphy is not alone: even Republican governors like Greg Abbott of Texas and Ron DeSantis of Florida have rolled back some of the business reopenings in their states because of concerns about the number of new cases.

Murphy also complained that in some places where dining was allowed in New Jersey, people were not following the rules:

Notably, he did not provide any evidence that these activities have increased the spread of coronavirus in his state, or increased the toll of people who have died or gotten seriously ill from the virus.

Murphy then did his best impersonation of a teacher explaining why he has to punish the entire class for the behavior of one student, except, of course, he did not seem to realize that he was talking to taxpayers who pay his salary.

Furthermore, while Murphy sees a big problem with taxpayers eating peacefully at tables separated from each other, he did not see a problem with people packed closely together for the purpose of protesting the police.

In a statement earlier this month, Murphy said, "It's one thing to protest what day nail salons are opening and it's another to come out and peaceful protest about somebody who was murdered right before our eyes."

The coronavirus was not available for comment as to whether it cared about the reason people were gathering in large groups or not.