The administration of Governor Phil Murphy confirmed on Thursday that it will pay $52.9 million to settle claims with 119 families of veterans home residents whose deaths were attributed to the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic.
The payments are coming as part of a settlement with the families of veterans who died in nursing homes in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. The families filed suit against the governor for his nursing home policies, which they claim led to the deaths of their family members.
Senator Joe Pennacchio said the nearly $53 million settlement to the families of veterans home residents who died due to the tragic decisions of the Murphy administration demonstrates the need for a comprehensive investigation and legislative oversight hearings.
“New Jerseyans are once again paying for the mismanagement of the pandemic by the Murphy administration,” said Pennacchio. “After 10,000 nursing and veterans home residents paid with their lives, millions of New Jersey taxpayers will be forced to pay with their wallets to settle claims of negligence and incompetence made against the administration. The settlement is yet another attempt by the Murphy administration to prevent a full and transparent investigation into the tragic decisions that led thousands of preventable deaths.”
“A handful of the mourning families may be satisfied with a monetary settlement, but there are thousands more who would rather have answers,” he added. “At every turn, however, the Murphy administration has resisted the efforts of grieving families, legislators, and the press to understand why so many of our frail and elderly veterans and nursing home residents died needlessly.”
Republicans say that Murphy’s May 2020 orders issued by the Murphy administration that forced nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients from hospitals wound up being deadly. The directives from the Department of Health prohibited long-term care facilities from testing patients for COVID-19 prior to admission.
To understand why those and other ill-advised orders were issued, Pennacchio introduced a resolution that, if adopted, would convene an investigative “Senate Select Committee on the Executive Branch’s Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Senate Democrats blocked his efforts to bring the resolution up for a vote by the New Jersey Senate on five separate occasions over 19 months. Earlier this week, every Democrat in the chamber voted to table Pennacchio’s latest attempt to call a vote on the resolution during a Senate session on December 20.
“Sadly, Democrats in the Legislature have been fully complicit in this cover-up,” said Pennacchio. “Democrats initially agreed to join us in a bipartisan investigation, but that quickly changed when the Murphy administration pressured them not to start digging. It’s disappointing Democrats showed none of the courage of the veterans whose deaths they refuse to investigate. I’ll keep pushing for a thorough, bipartisan investigation for as long as it takes.”
Pennacchio noted that Governor Murphy isn’t even in the country to answer questions as news of the multi-million-dollar settlement was shared with the press at the start of a holiday weekend when few people would be watching.
“Governor Murphy is on another vacation and families still don’t have the answers they deserve,” added Pennacchio. “One week he’s off to his luxury villa in Italy, now he’s jet-setting to Costa Rica. You know who isn’t going on vacation? The 10,000 American heroes he sentenced to death in our veterans and nursing homes.”
I would say that we have to differentiate between what was known at the time and what wasn’t known. Because if it wasn’t known yet, that shouldn’t be negligence. We could only do what we know.
53 million dollars ……that is taxpayer money going to pay for Governor knuckleheads bad decision. I am horrified that he made the decision that killed these people, at the same time as a taxpayer i should not be libel for his bad decisions. Governor knucklehead and his administration should be held personally responsible for this. Maybe if the politicians were held personally libel for their actions they might make better decisions
Murphy on of 4 democratic party governors who issued orders to nursing homes which effectively caused thousands of eldery to die and no investigation is allowed because they are democrats.
you knuckle heads that voted to re-elect him should pay you keep voting for these people that don’t care about anyone else but themselves so now you cry. Who is the bigger knuckle you or them.
Stevenn is absolutely correct. No one knew enough facts at the beginning of the pandemic. Murphy’s decision was based on what they thought was correct at the time. We can’t blame him for not knowing. Hindsight is 20/20. Easy for us to sit on our couch and scream and yell that “of course we would’ve known better!”
Yes! Finally someone writes about accessing medical cannabis.
Steven and ZC are absolutely NOT CORRECT. It was known from the very beginning that the elderly nursing home population are of the most vulnerable group. For some inexplicable reason the Gov made a decision to allow covid positive patients in the nursing homes.
I clearly remember everyone complaining about the terrible decision at the time it was made.
Please explain what wasn’t known at the time?