The “woman who needs no introduction” is about to get her gold watch, Save Jerseyans.
Judith Persichilli, head of New Jersey’s Health Department, will reportedly retire in August according to a Friday report from N.J. Advance Media.
“Judy’s unwavering dedication to public service during one of the most challenging times in our nation’s history will be remembered with sincere appreciation and gratitude,” Murphy tweeted. “Grateful for her tireless efforts to advance the health & well-being of New Jerseyans.”
Murphy took the extra step of renamed the Department of Health headquarters the “Judith M. Persichilli Building” back in 2022.
Deserved? Of course not; Murphy did it to promote a narrative that doesn’t match reality. Judith Persichilli is, in reality, a butcher, Save Jerseyans. She should’ve been fired and investigated, not allowed to retire with accolades like some species of civic saint.
Just one example: on March 31, 2020, Persichilli sent a letter to New Jersey nursing homes (citing Governor Murphy’s Executive Order 103) informing them that they were REQUIRED to accept COVID-19 positive admissions…
“No patient/resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the post-acute care setting solely based on a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. Persons under investigation for COVID-19 who have undergone testing in the hospital shall not be discharged until results are available. Post-acute care facilities are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized patient/resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.”
The full letter can be viewed here.
New Jersey’s nursing homes subsequently saw 10,000+ staff and resident deaths; the carnage at state-run veterans homes resulted in not one but TWO multi-million dollar payouts. As the pandemic waned, we learned that long-term care administrators protested the Murphy/Persichilli directive. A bar association review of New York’s own similar directive concluded that the decision to form LTC’s to accept COVID-19 patients caused additional deaths.
Of course, this doesn’t speak to all of the other lockdown-related decisions to which this monster was a party which hurt out children, our small businesses, and the now-frayed fabric of our society.
Here’s a free tip for the 2025 GOP gubernatorial hopefuls:
Run on promising to strip her name off of that state building. It’ll play well with those of us who were paying attention and all of those New Jerseyans who lost loved one who could still be alive today but for Judy P’s deadly decisions.
