NJ Not Prepared For Another Crisis, New COVID Postmortem Report Says

NEW JERSEY - The Garden State isn't prepared for the next pandemic-level crisis, according to a 900+ page state report by independent auditors released Monday.

The report, dubbed a “postmortem” review of New Jersey’s successes and failures during the COVID-19 pandemic prepared by the law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads LLP (and helmed by former New Jersey Assistant Attorney General Paul Zoubek) called the pandemic response a failure, resulting from inadequate healthcare infrastructure and scarcity of basic medical supplies at the state level.

“Despite the lessons of the last four years, New Jersey remains underprepared for the next emergency,” the report warns. “We owe it to those who lost their lives, and the families who suffered, as well as the heroic State workers and healthcare professionals.”

Here are five big takeaways from the state report:

1. Schools

Among the state’s most controversial topics during the pandemic was the issue of when to reopen K-12 schools, which has since been widely tied to learning loss among students. Per the report, students should have returned to the classroom sooner.

Citing New Jersey’s strong teachers' unions, the report noted “significant empirical evidence” that found schools that had teachers represented by unions reopened later. Learning loss as a result of the pandemic has also proved near impossible to monitor across districts, as many school districts partnered independently with assessment vendors to track student progress during lockdown.

2. Vaccines and Public Health Programs

The report credits state vaccination program and attempts to address vaccine hesitancy as critical to combating misinformation, noting an overall decrease in vaccine hesitancy in the state from 10 to 2 percent between May 2021 and December 2022; during the same time period, national vaccine hesitancy decreased from 18 to 10 percent.

New Jersey also achieved first dose and completed primary series vaccination rates above the national average and in line with most states that had comparable initial hesitancy levels, according to the report.

By the end of 2022, the Garden State had completely vaccinated 89 percent of its adult population, up from the 78 percent vaccination rate across the U.S.

3. Economic Impact

The economic impacts of the pandemic were wide-reaching in the U.S., and in New Jersey it was no exception. The effects of the pandemic were even more pronounced in the state than in most parts of the U.S. given the state’s higher-than-average levels of COVID-19, industry and employment mix that skews toward industries more impacted by COVID-19, and a longer government-mandated shutdown than most other states. New Jersey also saw worse GDP and employment losses than elsewhere.

Low-income workers in Garden State industries like hospitality faced a disproportionate share of harm, and workers did not always recover lost jobs or make up for lost wages. In fact, despite economic recovery on the whole, COVID-19 led to a fundamental restructuring of both state economies and the U.S. economy, according to the report.

“COVID-19 made normal life impossible,” the report reads. “Thousands of New Jersey residents lost their jobs and income, and businesses were shuttered. When those businesses did reopen, many needed to comply with new behavioral and industry guidelines that meant they could not operate at full scale or efficiency.”

4. Veterans Homes

Despite thousands of New Jersey nursing home residents who reportedly died in isolation, death counts at state veterans homes likely went underreported due to inconsistent reporting protocol, according to the report.

In one instance, a Paramus official reported a veteran home resident’s death to his supervisor by stating that the resident died “with COVID-19 not because of COVID-19.”

High fatalities at state-operated nursing homes can be attributed, at least in part, due to “a lack of healthcare experience by the administrators,” plus a lack of PPE due to distribution challenges and inconsistent policies regarding PPE use.

For example, in March 2020, the CEO of New Jersey Veterans Memorial Home at Menlo Park advised staff not to wear masks. Long term facility staff also had virtually no training for handing a global pandemic, the report notes.

“Even with strict lockdowns, infection control guidance, and a cautious approach toward reopening, outbreaks still occurred,” the report added.

5. Foresight

“Many factors contributed to the fact that the people of New Jersey suffered disproportionately from the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report reads, noting chief among these are New Jersey’s high population density, proximity to New York City and the fact that both federal and state governments were not prepared to respond to a public health emergency of its size.

Though a Pandemic Influenza Plan (which was “extremely accurate” in predicting what would happen during the pandemic) was created by the department of health in 2015, senior leadership was not acutely aware of the details of the plan in the lead up to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the report.

“Effective emergency preparation involves planning, periodic training / exercises, and people,” the report reads. “Several people in government told us they thought “some other agency” ought to have an Emergency Preparedness Manager. In fact, that position exists (and is staffed) in the other agency, but the people we spoke with were unaware of that fact.”

What Comes Next?

Though New Jersey was not properly prepared for a global emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic, the state said its postmortem report was made with the goal to enhance the state’s ability to formulate a speedier, more effective response during the next crisis and avoid further economic upheaval, social strife and loss of life.

“We hope the report can serve as a playbook for New Jersey – a guide to putting in place the appropriate resources, plans, and processes – so that we can all be better prepared for the next major crisis,” the report concluded. “Let us learn from this horrific experience today so we can avoid another one tomorrow.”

You can read the full report here.