Wednesday, April 07, 2021

7 April 2021: No Answers From New Jersey DOH

Still No Answers In Case Of NJ 'Makeshift Morgue' Nursing Home

The story of what happened in New Jersey's nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic continues to develop, as the impact of Governor Phil Murphy's choice to copy and paste Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive has severe repercussions. This article covers the ongoing cover-up of one aspect related to Governor Murphy's decision to model himself into a Mini-Me version of Governor Cuomo.

It has been nearly a year since the Andover Subacute & Rehab Center II made headlines after stacking more than a dozen bodies in a temporary facility, referred to as a "makeshift morgue" by officials. But answers as to what happened over that long Easter weekend are still scarce as Open Public Records Act requests continue to go unfilled.

Like many members of the Garden State media, the County of Sussex continues to wait on OPRA requests. County Counsel Kevin D. Kelly first contacted New Jersey's Department of Health on May 1, 2020 and May 12, 2020, for 19 different types of records. Kelly's last correspondence with the state was in August, when Murphy Administration Department of Health officials requested another extension, officials said.

Among the documents Kelly asked for, were routine and complaint inspection reports for the Subacute facilities, the Department of Health's communications with Andover Subacute's legal counsel Christopher Porrino, communications between the state and County of Sussex and Andover Subacute's personal protective equipment or PPE inventory.

The stonewalling by New Jersey's Department of Health contradicts Murphy's claims of valuing both transparency and accountability and would appear to extend to other government agencies:

"The governor often says he's being 'crystal clear,'" said Commissioner Director Dawn Fantasia. "I'll tell you what's crystal clear. The New Jersey Department of Health and the Murphy Administration were clearly warned. Warned that patients would die. Warned that by demanding long-term care facilities - facilities that were in no way prepared with adequate staffing, adequatetraining, or adequate PPE - take COVID patients, that patients would die who wouldn't have otherwise, died had positive patients been screened."

It is true, Murphy has maintained all along at numerous COVID briefings that his administration was clear in their orders. That COVID patients returning to facilities would have to be kept separately either by floor or by wing and that separation had to include staff. The Department of Health guidelines Murphy referred to noted that facilities that could not make that happen should contact the Department of Health for assistance.

"Why can't we get a simple inspection document?" Commissioner Herbert Yardley said. "Is there something they [New Jersey's Department of Health] don't want us to see?"

Here is related coverage from the timeline:

To the best of our knowledge, President Biden stopped all the DOJ's active investigations into the governors who compelled nursing homes in their states to admit COVID patients being dumped from hospitals to free up bed space shortly after being sworn into office. By doing so, President Biden effectively gifted federal criminal immunity to the governors who adopted these policies. The DOJ was forced to restart its probe of New York's COVID nursing homes scandals after a senior Cuomo administration official acknowledged they covered up the full extent of COVID deaths among care home residents in the state.

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