N.J. beginning Murphys long-promised review of how state handled COVID-19

Gov. Phil Murphys administration has launched a long-awaited review of how New Jersey responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, two years and eight months after Murphy first promised one, in the early days of the crisis.

The state tapped a pair of outside firms to conduct the independent review, Murphy announced Monday. Work will begin immediately, but a final report isnt expected until 2023, the governors office said.

Teams from Philadelphia law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, led by a Republican former assistant state attorney general, and Boston Consulting Group, a Massachusetts management consulting firm, will oversee the project.

NJ Advance Media was the first to report the development earlier Monday.

The move fulfills a vow Murphy has made multiple times since April 2020 just weeks after COVID-19 began spreading in New Jersey to conduct a postmortem on how the state has handled the pandemic. The Democratic governor said last month that starting the review had taken longer than expected. Republicans have repeatedly criticized him for the delay.

Murphys administration said New Jersey will be the first state in the nation to commission an independent and comprehensive probe of pandemic response.

His office did not say how much the process is expected to cost the state. Get politics news like this right to your inbox with the N.J. Politics newsletter. Add your email below and hit “subscribe”
      

The review will examine how well New Jersey home to more than 35,000 COVID-19 deaths over the last 31 months was prepared for the virus in early 2020 and its emergency policy decisions in the following months, Murphys office said.

It will also look at how the state responded to vulnerable residents, including in long-term care, as well as how it managed testing, vaccinations, personal protection equipment, and more, the office said. And it will provide recommendations for how the state can prepare for future public health emergencies.

The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the biggest challenges our state and nation has ever faced, Murphy said in a statement.

Throughout the pandemic, my responsibility as governor demanded that I make every decision based on the available data, facts, and science in order to preserve the health and safety of all 9.3 million residents, regardless of the politics. My responsibility as governor also demands a full and comprehensive review of how the state was prepared for and responded to the pandemic, so that we can take the steps to better prepare future administrations for a public health crisis.

Overseeing the review will be Paul Zoubek, who was first assistant state attorney general under former Republican governors Christie Whitman and Donald DiFrancesco. He now works out of the Cherry Hill office of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads.

Zoubek also worked for the state Department of Law and Public Safety in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has overseen numerous investigations into state government.

As a widely respected, apolitical, and experienced state and federal prosecutor, Paul Zoubek is exactly the right person to lead this review, and has the experience in emergency management and government investigations that makes him perfectly suited for this task, Murphy said.

Though COVID-19 is still present, Murphy said the state has moved from a pandemic to endemic phase and now is the right time to undertake such an independent review.

A senior Murphy administration official told NJ Advance Media it likely would not have been possible or responsible to commission a review while we were in the thick of it. The official is not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

COVID-19 has killed more than 35,093 residents in New Jersey, an early epicenter of the pandemic, since the states first case was reported in March 2020. More than 9,800 of those deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other longterm care facilities, according to state data.

The state on Monday reported another 976 COVID-19 cases and 10 confirmed deaths.

Murphy closed businesses and schools statewide for months to help curb the spread early on. But he has faced repeated accusations from Republicans and others for installing measures that were too draconian and too lengthy, as well as criticism over the deaths in longterm care facilities.

State Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio said Monday the report is better late than never, but at what final cost to taxpayers? He also said the most important part of this study is the impact on vulnerable residents, who took the brunt of failed policies.

That includes job losses, addiction and overdose spikes, rising crime and rent, and learning loss, DiMaio said. Lets not forget how much inequality and inequity was exacerbated, too.

He added the Democratic-controlled state Legislature should be a part of this process because we dealt with the victims of these policies directly.

A Democratic lawmaker, state Sen. Nia Gill of Essex County, has publicly called for a bipartisan committee to investigate what happened in longterm care facilities. State Sen. Joseph Pennachio, R-Morris, is expected to once again push for a resolution to launch such a probe, which would include subpoena power.

In August, the state agreed to pay a second round of settlements totaling $15.9 million to 71 families of residents who died in New Jerseys three state-run veterans homes in the early days of the virus.

An earlier agreement in December to resolve wrongful death claims paid out nearly $53 million to the families of 119 residents who died from COVID-19 in the veterans homes between March and May of 2020.

The state admitted no wrongdoing as part of either settlement.

Mondays announcement comes a week after Murphys administration dispatched a team of longterm care professionals to the state-run Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park to help correct problems of abuse and safety violations that were uncovered in a recent inspection and put residents in immediate jeopardy.

A week before that, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, notified the administration it may withhold funding for new admissions unless serious deficiencies in pandemic infection control and resident care are remedied.

A group of Democratic state senators Joe Vitale, chairman of the Senate Health Committee; Joe Cryan, chairman of the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee; and Vin Gopal, Joe Lagana, and Patrick Diegnan, who have been working together on proposed reforms at New Jerseys state-run veterans homes said in a joint statement Monday they welcome the outside review Murphy announced.

We cant shy away from any hard lessons that will help gain a full understanding of the successes and shortcomings in managing what was an unprecedented public health crisis, they said.

But, they added, we still must move forward with thorough, institutional reforms at the state-run veterans homes that continue to experience reoccurring problems that compromise the health and safety of the residents.

The lawmakers said the team deployed to the Menlo Park home should help address immediate problems there and provide answers for additional changes at all three state veterans homes. But, they said, the state should also consider plans to separate the operational management of the veterans homes with a cabinet-level department devoted to the needs of the residents and their families.

This will provide the expertise and focus that is needed to ensure the quality of care at the facilities, regardless of the cost, the lawmakers said.

In 2020, the Murphy administration hired healthcare consultant Manatt Health to investigate how New Jersey nursing homes responded to the pandemic as the death toll spiraled out of control. New Jersey was forced to seek emergency assistance from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Guard moves that were criticized as being too littl and too late.

The consultants concluded that longterm care facilities overall were underprepared and under-staffed to deal with the pandemic, and called for tougher state scrutiny. But the study did not scrutinize the states performance.

That report cost $500,000.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Ted Sherman contributed to this report.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @johnsb01.