New Jersey Issues First-of-Its-Kind Report on COVID-19 Response
March 13, 2024
Governing
Types : In the News
New Jersey did many things right in its response to COVID-19, achieving a significantly lower death rate than many other states. Even so, the authors of a new report conclude that no amount of effort by public officials would have been enough to overcome weaknesses in health-care infrastructure and a scarcity of medical supplies.
New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy released an independent report on his state’s COVID-19 response on Monday. At more than 900 pages, it offers an unflinching look at the many ways that both the state and the nation were unprepared for the pandemic.
What New Jersey has done is laudatory, says Brian Castrucci, CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, which supports public health efforts, but it can’t be an exception. Every state needs to do a serious deep dive on their COVID-19 response, he argues. “The chain is as strong as its weakest link, not its best report,” he says.
Plans existed that could have helped the state deal with such a crisis, but they weren’t consulted. Failures to take advantage of preparations for a public health emergency, which also hampered federal response efforts, were common, says Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). It’s a finding from New Jersey that many in public health should learn from and use, she says.
“More was owed to the heroes called on to deal with the health-care crisis,” the report’s authors say, pointing to inadequacies in training, staffing and resources. They offer nearly 70 pages of recommendations regarding what needs to be done to fill the gap. Some of the things they heard from state agencies, key decision-makers in government and outside groups with important roles in pandemic response are surprising.’
Paul Zoubek, the attorney who led the review, noted that people interviewed frequently said, “Nobody saw this coming.” It is a disturbing finding for a country that lived through epidemics of typhoid, flu, diphtheria, measles, polio and AIDS in the 20th century.