New Jersey remains unprepared for the next public health emergency, according to a new state-commissioned report examining COVID-19’s high death toll in the Garden State and urging officials to improve their emergency planning.
“I know New Jersey will be better off because of this review, and my administration looks forward to working with the legislature on its recommendations,” Gov. Phil Murphy said in a statement on the report, which was prepared by law firm Montgomery McCracken and was released on Monday.
Murphy had said as early as April 2020 that New Jersey would commission an independent “postmortem” of his administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The state finally launched the $9 million study in late 2022.
The report calls for state officials to address disparities among residents that led to uneven outcomes in COVID-19 mortality rates and economic losses as businesses shut down. It says there are straightforward measures officials can take, such as sufficiently funding and staffing the state health department and investing in public health infrastructure more consistently.
“Despite the lessons of the last four years, New Jersey remains underprepared for the next emergency,” the authors wrote, adding that the report should serve as a “call to action.”
It says New Jersey should conduct and audit more emergency plans and training, and that officials at all levels of government must become more aware of what plans and resources exist in case of an emergency.
“Several people in government told us they thought ‘some other agency’ ought to have an emergency preparedness manager,” when that position existed in their own agencies, the report says.
The report also emphasizes that readiness for a health emergency means “substantial and consistent financial support” so that the public health system can quickly ramp up if a global crisis emerges.
COVID-19 has killed more than 36,000 New Jerseyans to date. The report acknowledges…
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