'No Safe Place:' Christie Urges Masking After COVID-19 Battle

MENDHAM, NJ - "I was wrong," Chris Christie thought as he lay in the intensive care unit in Morristown Medical Center. In isolation from his loved ones after testing COVID-19 positive, the former New Jersey governor decided then to warn others against the dangers of taking the coronavirus too lightly.

"I learned the hard way, that even a temporary dropping of your guard against this virus can cost you," Christie told Patch.

Christie, who served as governor from 2010 to 2018 and entered the hospital on his own volition on Oct. 3, became one of the public officials connected to President Donald Trump to be hospitalized for the coronavirus.

Christie said that as the pandemic took hold across the nation he did everything he could to protect himself and others, for the first seven months.

"Whenever I went out, I wore a mask, I washed my hands 12 times a day, I stayed out of big groups and any big social settings, and I stayed healthy," he said.

But then he was invited to the White House to attend the Rose Garden event for the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett and to assist Trump with his debate prep against Joe Biden.

"For four days, in the White House, when I thought I was in a safe place, I took my mask off, in interacting with other people," Christie said.

Christie said that he was lax with his masking because he thought that the White House was a safe place. That with all of the testing being done there, that he was not at risk. And he, and nearly a dozen others learned shortly afterwards, were wrong, he said.

"It was a huge mistake. Because what I learned is there is no safe place," Christie said.

And lying in the hospital, alone for a week, he decided to use his experience with the contracting the illness to help others.

"When you have a certain degree of public notoriety, what comes along with that is, is also a greater degree of responsibility to try to use that notoriety in a positive way," Christie said. "And so I thought that once I got sick, I felt like if people heard me say it, that they would maybe listen and hear me say I was wrong for taking my mask off at the White House, I hope that we get people's attention."

The "we" Christie refers to is the COVID Collaborative, a coalition of public health, education and economic experts helping develop best practices to support state and local leaders in their efforts to end the pandemic. The coalition has also featured messaging by former President Bill Clinton and former President George W. Bush.

Christie said that their ideas matched up with what he was thinking about while convalescing and expounded upon in his Wall Street Journal op-ed.

"From the reaction we've gotten, I think I was right. And that, you know, it has gotten people's attention," Christie said. "I just want to try to save as many people from going through what I went through, if you can avoid it."

Christie said the commercial came together pretty quickly, a week from when he agreed to when it was completed. Never shy with his opinion, Christie also didn't mince words about the finished product.

"I am really happy with how it turned out," he said.

Read more from Patch's interview with Christie:

• 'No Safe Place:' Christie Urges Masking After COVID-19 Battle
• Christie Tells Trump It Is Time To 'Move On' From Election Loss
• Ex-Gov. Christie Would Have Opened NJ Schools, Dining Amid COVID
• Chris Christie Has 'No Intention' Of Leaving Mendham
• Ex-Gov. Christie Extolls 'Extraordinary' COVID Care In Morristown

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