Since he held his last COVID-19 press conference March 4, Gov. Phil Murphy has visited Ireland and Israel, crisscrossed the state to promote his political agenda that includes the 2023 budget, abortion rights and attempts to curb gun violence.
He has vacationed for two weeks in Italy, returning for a weekend to take over the reins of the National Governors Association. Murphy just this week was in Washington to meet with Biden Administration officials to figure out a way to handle the current U.S. teacher shortage.
We have no problem with any of these actions, for they put North Jersey front and center in the national debate on the most important issues of the day. And we fully support any family time public officials can schedule.
But what Murphy hasn’t done is fulfill his promise to have his actions and those of his administration during the pandemic reviewed by either a legislative committee or an outside entity.
That must end now.
We have and continue to be supportive overall of Murphy’s response to COVID—from the early days, when hospitals were overrun and understaffed, to his gradual repealing of controversial decisions such as school face masks. Murphy and New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli’s strong stance on a vaccine we truly believe saved lives.
But Murphy’s recent comments that we have not yet had a post-moretum because New Jersey still has 1,000 patients hospitalized does not pass the test of leadership and, in our view, is disingenuous.
Republicans, led by State Sen. Joe Pennacchio, are absolutely correct to state that Democrats have stonewalled a legislative investigation.
“The state may never be ‘out of the woods’ when it comes to having some number of hospitalizations, which the governor is using as an excuse, because COVID-19 is now endemic, and he knows that,” Pennacchio said recently. “It’s sickening that the Democrats who control the Legislature are unwilling to learn from the unnecessary deaths of 10,000 nursing home and veterans home residents because it might be embarrassing to the administration.”
Garden State residents deserve to know if it was the state’s policies or operators that caused the large number of deaths at long-term care health facilities early in the pandemic, why millions of taxpayers dollars are being paid to the families that lost loved ones at the state’s three veteran homes, should businesses and schools have been shut down and what would be the playbook God forbid the next time a pandemic occurs.
Yes, we know that early in the pandemic the Murphy Administration commissioned a “rapid review” by Manatt Health. But that only focused on nursing homes. A larger review is called for.
When Murphy lifted the public health emergency, he stated “We think we can responsibly live a normal life with COVID.” While there have been surges—and there are sure to be more this Fall and Winter—it has not approached the levels before there were vaccines, at-home testing and therapeutics.
The state has reached that point that the governor talked about, getting back to a normal life. Moreover, Murphy’s schedule over the last six months has shown that.
We as a country have made that transition to living with COVID. We have gone back to work, school, vacations, and dining out—maybe in a different way but in numbers that approach before the first case was discovered in North Jersey 29 months ago.
The way we see it is that Murphy is not fulfilling a promise he made as governor and during his campaign for a second term. It is time the governor stopped putting off an examination of his administration’s actions since March 2020. Because for a man who has national ambitions, anything else is disqualifying for his political future in our eyes.
Far from over, the COVID pandemic is ramping up, again, with large numbers of children and teachers falling ill at school, and many staying in school/work despite being sick, only to spread their illness to others.
Epidemiologists are screaming at the top of their lungs that we are embarking on a dangerous path by going maskless indoors. The expectation in the community of epidemiologists is that with increasingly evasive variants, declining vaccination/booster rates, lack of masking, and forced return to schools and offices, we are looking at a veritable bloodbath of cases this fall and winter, with as many as 30% of victims developing long COVID, and becoming disabled. In fact, right now, there are over 4 million Americans who are fully disabled and out of the workforce because of long COVID.
The odds of developing long COVID increase to 80% for those who contract the illness 10 or more times, which many have already done, and which many more will do if we continue with the current state of denial.
Let me say this loud and clear — the pandemic is not over, and we are not in an endemic stage. Endemic means predictable and controlled. We are nowhere near predictable or controlled.
Gov Murphy is bowing to political pressure, but rather than doing that, he needs to reverse course, reinstitute masking and offer options for remote education/work for as many people as possible, particularly vulnerable people with underlying health conditions. ADA lawsuits will happen, and they will cost the state billions if we don’t start making accommodations for those needing to work or study remotely.
An investigation into Murphy’s handling of COVID has a subtext — it is designed to pillory him for taking whatever protective measures he did take to protect public health. The fact that he backtracked is not to his credit, but Republicans want to punish him for insituting mask mandates and other measures in the early days of the pandemic. They should be ashamed of themselves for trying to take a whack at Gov. Murphy simply because not everything went as we would like during the chaotic and unpredictable early phase of the pandemic.
Another example of the hysterical nonsense that made the governmental response to the pandemic worse than the disease itself.
Any Post Morten of the pandemic must evaluate all of the impacts of crises – health related, as well as the socio economic disasters that were created
The premise that anyone can use 20-20 hindsight to determine what should have been done in the early months of a completely new and unknown virus would be laughable if it wasn’t so politically transparent. Planning ahead for the next pandemic is good governance. Retroactive second guessing using what we know now but didn’t know then so the Rs in the legislature can score points is a waste of time.
@Marc Schaeffer – exactly right! This is a political hit job, designed to soften Murphy’s political capital to prevent him from achieving his agenda during this term, and to prevent another Democrat from being elected when Murphy’s term ends.
The covid virus was never any more dangerous than a regular flu. The infection fatality rate as shown by world renowned epidemiologist Dr John Ionnidis at Standford was shown to be 0.1-0.2 as early as the Summer of 2020.
By the Summer of 2021, 75-80 percent of the population of the US had already had covid and “alleged” pandemic was essentially OVER.
In fact covid was never really a pandemic because the virus was never really much more dangerous than bad flu.
NONE of the measures undertaken by Murphy, the CDC worked or helped.
Nothing the CDC said was correct or scientifically valid.
Nothing Mr. Howardfrederics above has said in all of his lunatic rants has been correct.
1) masks dont stop viruses : at all. never did.
2) lockdowns dont work and cause more harm
3) school closures were unnecessary because children are not at risk from covid
4) the covid vaccine does NOT stop infection spread or transmission. It only provides a very short time limited boost in protection. Therefore anyone who is at risk can get a shot . And there is absolutely no scientific or moral justification to mandate the shots for anyone at any time.
5) the covid shots carry a significant risk of serious side effects including myocarditis, nervous system side effects and even sudden death. In fact all over the world the excess mortality rate among younger people has gone up signicificantly since the vaccine rollout.
Nothing the gov murphy has done has helped anyone. His actions have destroyed lives and ruined the educational opportunities for kids
The greatest crime of all has been the systematic censorship and withholding of information about early effective outpatient treatments like the safe drug ivermectin and hydroxycholoquine.
THe entire world has descended into a mass delusional psychotic “mass formation” psychosis.
Mr. Fredrics above is a victim of this mental illness ; hence his ranting about Murphy’s handling of the pandemic being a subtext.
The entire US government public health establishment has been a complete failure.
Fauci was wrong and lied about everything.
Murphy’s handling of COVID was a complete failure on every level.
There is no benefit at all to remote learning or mask use or additional vaccination for otherwise healthy not at risk people.
The covid virus was never any more dangerous than a regular flu. The infection fatality rate as shown by world renowned epidemiologist Dr John Ionnidis at Standford was shown to be 0.1-0.2 as early as the Summer of 2020.
By the Summer of 2021, 75-80 percent of the population of the US had already had covid and “alleged” pandemic was essentially OVER.
In fact covid was never really a pandemic because the virus was never really much more dangerous than bad flu.
NONE of the measures undertaken by Murphy, the CDC worked or helped.
Nothing the CDC said was correct or scientifically valid.
Nothing Mr. Howardfrederics above has said in all of his lunatic rants has been correct.
1) masks dont stop viruses : at all. never did.
2) lockdowns dont work and cause more harm
3) school closures were unnecessary because children are not at risk from covid
4) the covid vaccine does NOT stop infection spread or transmission. It only provides a very short time limited boost in protection. Therefore anyone who is at risk can get a shot . And there is absolutely no scientific or moral justification to mandate the shots for anyone at any time.
5) the covid shots carry a significant risk of serious side effects including myocarditis, nervous system side effects and even sudden death. In fact all over the world the excess mortality rate among younger people has gone up signicificantly since the vaccine rollout.
Nothing the gov murphy has done has helped anyone. His actions have destroyed lives and ruined the educational opportunities for kids
The greatest crime of all has been the systematic censorship and withholding of information about early effective outpatient treatments like the safe drug ivermectin and hydroxycholoquine.
THe entire world has descended into a mass delusional psychotic “mass formation” psychosis.
Mr. Fredrics above is a victim of this mental illness ; hence his ranting about Murphy’s handling of the pandemic being a subtext.
The entire US government public health establishment has been a complete failure.
Fauci was wrong and lied about everything.
Murphy’s handling of COVID was a complete failure on every level.
Almost nothing that you;ve written in two years has been correct. The CDC has been wrong about everything. MAsks do nothing. Masks dont stop viruses. The worldwide evidence for this is overwhelming and has been known for decades. Lockdowns and school closures have hurt more people than they have helped and were completely unnecessary. The covid vaccine does NOT stop infection spread or transmission and thus does not have to mandated for anyone.
The covid vaccine has killed and injured thousands of people.
THe country of sweden never lockeddown never closed schools, never masked and never mandated vaccines and sweden actually did better than average and certainly better than NJ.
The biggest danger from covid is not covid; as covid is really only about as dangerous as a severe seasonal flu. The biggest danger from covid is brainwashed psychotic mentally ill people like howardfredrics who have had their brains so short-circuited by fear that they cant think straight and view everything in terms of tribal politics.
Fauci was wrong about everything
and the CDC is a totally failed institution
https://ianmsc.substack.com/p/why-are-so-many-vaccinated-people
https://ianmsc.substack.com/p/fauci-is-leaving-office-with-a-horrific-d44
It appears that Dirk is cracking up and has resorted to projecting his own breakdown onto others, repeatedly calling me “psychotic.”
I would note that all of the posts I’ve made about COVID have been backed up by links to peer-reviewed studies.
I might further add that Dirk’s promotion of proven dangerous and ineffective “treatments” for COVID is bordering on the criminal, on the level of crying “fire” in a crowded theatre or encouraging people to drink kool aid laced with poison. But then, again, this is what might be expected from a follower of a cult of personality leader.
To be clear, large studies have shown that hydroxychloriquine and ivermectin (in the dosage required for any posited therapeutic effect for COVID) both have severe and even deadly effects, while offering no actual benefit.
I would hope that moderators would catch this and remove his irresponsible posts, which could cause readers to seek out such ineffective and dangerous treatments.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joseph-Vinetz/publication/341499085_Lack_of_efficacy_of_hydroxychloroquine_in_covid-19/links/5ec52ca2299bf1c09acc45e5/Lack-of-efficacy-of-hydroxychloroquine-in-covid-19.pdf
https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/home/topics/covid19/hydroxychloroquine-for-covid-19-in-outpatient-setting-not-supported-by-evidence/#:~:text=The%20researchers%20concluded%20%E2%80%9Cthere%20is,%2D19%20%5Binfection%5D.%E2%80%9D
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20220331/ivermectin-doesnt-help-treat-covid-19-large-study-finds
it was NOT completely new and unknown. There are 6 other subtypes of coronavirus that cause… the common cold. Chances are about 20 percent if you had a cold in the last 10 years you had a coronavirus cold. This “new” covid 19 strain was almost certainly the result of illegal and dangerous research being offshored to Wuhan. there was likely an accident and it escaped. There is evidence that the virus was circulating as early as oct – nov 2019. So what made 2020 special was that it was an election year.
There have been many pandemics over the decades of the 20th century and the public health authorities all over the world have experience dealling with them. First of all covid-19 simply is not that dangerous to otherwise health young people and adults. The infection fatality rate is about the same as a bad regular seasonal flu.
The W.H.O. and the CDC have well established guidelines for dealing with these pathogens and none of the published guidelines involve mask wearing, because masks dont stop viruses and none of the guidelines call for mass quarantine of otherwise health not at risk people.
So it was very clear and evidence what needed to be done in the Summer of 2020, but the public health estalishment was weaponized against the US people b/c the large administtrative state in Washington DC hated Trump and needed to get rid of him.
Nothing the CDC said or did was correct or scientifically valid.
THe US public health authorities took a bad seasonal flu virus outbreak and turned it into a global mass hysteria
Dirk, Well over 1,000,000 Americans died from COVID thus far. Over 4,000,000 Americans are long-term or permanently disabled and out of the workforce because of Long COVID.
You can make up any number of rationalizations you like to try to explain away or minimize the scope of this deadly pandemic, but the numbers are the numbers.
No thats not how many people have died from covid. Once again your mind has been completely perverted and coopted by irrational fear. The CDC is the entity responsible for collecting , collating and reporting the numbers. And the CDC has failed in this duty as well.
Im in the medical industry, I have seen this FIRST HAND.
There has been a systematic failure in the reporting of covid deaths and hospitalizations. The vast majority of people who have died directly FROM covid as their primary illness is far less than one million people. Several counties in CA and MA has recently been forced to audit their hospital and public reporting records and have found that 1) 80-90 percent of all deaths have occurred in those who were over 70 and in institutions and long term care facilities and nursing homes. 2) these people had multiple comorbid conditions like heart failure, kidney failure, cancer, bacterial pnemonia.
Mr. F, have you ever seen or filled out a death certificate? I have … many times.
There are several lines on which to list the deceased’s problems. What happened in many cases was that COVID got listed on the death certificate in the 3 or 4th position when the ACTUAL cause of death was heart failure. BUT the patient was admitted within 30 days of a positive covid test and counted as covid positive b/c the hospital got paid EXTRA if there was a covid admission. I am licensed physician in the state of NJ, NY and FL and I have seen this first hand. So there were people who got admitted to hospitals with a recent covid test or tested positive in the hospital and died in the hospital from heart failure but were counted as a covid death. In CA and MA, these FALSELY counted deaths made up 20-30 percent of the deaths. SO in reality we are probably looking at more like 500,000-600,000 deaths directly from covid. And I personally knew a person who died directly from covid. A cousin of my father’s who died in 2021 at the age of 93 from pneumonia brought on by covid. SO I am not at all discounting the fact that covid is real and dangerous to many people. but it is still only dangerous to older and infirm people who have serious comorbid conditions.
When you say that it is bad that people are getting sick with covid and spreading it : this is not a bad thing. this CANNOT be prevented. The vaccine DOES NOT stop infection or spread. The best thing that could happen would be for all the healthy people to get covid naturally and recover ( as I did – I never got the vax) . This would give them the herd immunity that would end the pandemic.
If you look back at prior pandemics like the influenza epidemic in 1957 and 1968, during those two epidemics the influenza killled a large PERCENTAGE of the population . MORE people died during those two epidemics than over the period of covid 19. The US population is current 350 million
if 750,000 people died out of 350,000,000 , thats only 0.2 percent!
The risk of death from covid is miniscule.
ANd once again, masks do NOTHING.
Ivermectin and hydoxychloroquine reduce the severity of lethality of the infection.
Elderly and at risk people should be protected heroically , but during 1957 and 1968, the society did not shut down.
THe country of Sweden did not shut down, never masked, and never mandated shots.
you need to stop paying attention to the NEW york times and CNN and the CDC and the FDA. These instuttions are totally corrupted by pharmaceutical company money.
Meanwhile the actual stats from excess mortality among 12-55 year olds is way up all over the world. Young healthy people are dying at an alarming rate from heart attacks and sudden deaths. These deaths are a direct result of the mRNA spike protein vaccine which makes the body produce toxic levels of spike protein.
In the end you will see , you will come to your senses, the covid shot has killed more people than it saved and all the efforts undertaken by Muprhy and the CDC and NJ dep of health achieved NOTHING.
What should have been done was what the public heealth establishement knew was right all along: protect those at risk, dont shut down, dont panic the population, treat sick people by isolating them and treating them aggressively with early treatment to keep them out of the hospital and vaccinate only those who were at risk.
What happened instead was that the whole situation became a big politicized MESS, because of BOTH SIDES and the result was a global mass hysteria.
100,000s of thousands of people died UNNCESSARILY because they were denied effective early out patient treatment.
And the so called “official” sources like the US surgeon general and Fauci and the CDC were greatest sources of misinformation in the world
Rachel Walensky admitted that she and the CDC failed. The NY times even admitted that Fauci was a a complete failure.
People like me were writing and speaking out all along . But people like you were too blinded by fear and ideology to listen.
Dirk, I have fully investigated you, and can report that you are not a licensed physician anywhere. Now, your false statements have caught up with you, for if you were a physician, you would have lost your license in these states for spreading covid misinformation.
Nb Sweden had the highest pwr capita death rate from covid among nordic countries, because they failed to mitigate.
Remember that our esteemed state public health “experts” were likely working for the government because they couldn’t get jobs in the private sector and were also likely not to be at the top of their classes academically. This applies at the federal level as well. Why would anyone expect better results given this is the shallow end of the talent pool?
My husband died in 2022, was in his 40s and was vaccinated. Yes, ultimately his heart gave out in the end but it was fine when he went into the hospital with Covid. (The tests show it). Covid is what destroyed his young body and made him go septic. I have to disagree with you that Covid isn’t what killed people.
I am so sorry for your loss, Mary.
May his memory remain a comfort for you.
Now, Now, why not Stop this Fishing spree, hunting for’n Skeletal’s which Ain’t there!! AND; To have Governor Phil Murphy’s actions and those of his administration during the pandemic reviewed by either a legislative committee or an outside entity, is Down rite despicable Political Trash! And this Trashing is done by that same persuasions, looking to find an excuse for’n their own Inaction’s!! Lets start investigations with them whom are the Drivers of these Witch Hunts!! From my observations Governor Murphy done did an Outstanding Job during the Entire Pandemics & with these Unfair Inflation’s!! AND; It’s a Shame that so many Desgraciados,[Disgraceful dudes], are Worming huge Profit’s from the hard pressed People’s in NJ & Countrywide!!//
News Flash!! Its been reported that those whom died from Covid-19, after extracting their blood in order to embalm them, the blood showed having some rubbery type Worm’s!! It’s Believed that this may have come from the Vaccine’s, though they’re Not Sure!! AND; More investigations are needed to determine its cause!! Now, this Virus is an highly developed hybrid, ever changing & evolving!! WOW! What Genius; This could be a beginning to the unknown!! AND; Governor Phil Murphy’s handling of this Germ was also Genius!! Please accept A Big Thanks..//