State Senator Joe Pennacchio (R-26) kept the call for nursing home accountability alive heading into July 4th meeting, demanding a New York-style investigation into 10,000+ long term care facility tests attributable to Governor Phil Murphy’s pandemic directive.
“The budget is signed, the pandemic appears to be winding down, and life is returning to normal, but for the 10,000 residents who died in New Jersey nursing homes and their families, life will never be ‘normal’ again,” said Pennacchio (R-26). “There needs to be some accountability for the ill-fated decisions that placed so many lives in jeopardy.
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“From the earliest days of the pandemic, it became obvious that Governor Murphy was following in the footsteps of his colleague to the north. What happened in New York happened in New Jersey, too. And the results were the same: The unnecessary loss of thousands of vulnerable senior citizens,” added Pennacchio.
“During an acrimonious conference call with the health commissioner, a nursing home administrator stated emphatically, ‘Patients will die!’ The words are haunting in retrospect, but why were they ignored?” asked Pennacchio. “Why did the Governor and his team seem to have more confidence in Cuomo than they did in those working inside nursing homes? Why did they refuse to lift the directive even as bodies began to pile up and the conditions in veterans and nursing homes deteriorated?”
Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli has already launched an ad featuring the chilling administrator phone call cited by Pennachio.
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