State Pandemic Plans Found That A Deadly Pandemic Was A “Looming Threat” And “Inevitable”
NJ State Pandemic Plans Found That 50,000 Deaths Could Occur
Once again, NJ Spotlight has allowed State health officials to mislead and flat out lie to their readers about the State’s lack of preparation and planning for the COVID pandemic, see:
Today’s story deploys exactly the same “failure of imagination” Big Lie the Bush administration used to dodge accountability for 9/11 lapses.
Remarkably, almost 20 years after the Bush 9/11 Big Lie was exposed and discredited, NJ Spotlight provides a platform for NJ State Officials to use exactly the same cover story. Here’s how the NJ Spotlight story opens:
A failure of imagination.
That was one of the factors that initially plagued the government response to COVID-19 in New Jersey and nationwide, according to state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli and Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, the medical adviser for the state’s coronavirus response.
I call bullshit on that.
But the lies actually get worse:
A year after COVID-19 was first identified in New Jersey, the state has recorded nearly 800,000 cases and almost 24,000 fatalities linked to the disease. “No one was prepared for what we experienced this year. No one imagined that,” Bresnitz, the former state epidemiologist, said. “We just couldn’t imagine it would turn out to what it would be.”
Again, this is total bullshit.
The NJ Department of Health Pandemic Plan and the State’s Home Security Hazard Mitigation Plan predicted up to 50,000 deaths from a pandemic.
Three major influenza pandemics affected areas across the globe in the 20th century, causing millions of deaths. New Jersey saw the impacts of these pandemics. If a new influenza virus were to begin spreading throughout the world, New Jersey could experience more than 50,000 deaths, more than 275,000 people hospitalized, and more than 2.5 million people ill (NJDOH, 2012). Table 5.21-3 provides details on pandemic events that have impacted New Jersey.
Those plans described a deadly pandemic as a “looming threat” and “inevitable” – official state findings that destroy the Big Lie of a “a failure of imagination”
Both plans warned about the totally inadequate capacity and likely collapse of the healthcare system:
The healthcare system will be severely taxed, if not overwhelmed, from the large number of illnesses and complications from influenza requiring hospitalization and critical care. CDC models estimate increases in hospitalization and intensive care unit demand of more than 25%. Ventilators will be the most critical shortage if a pandemic were to occur (Global Security, 2011).
These are not esoteric or new issues – I wrote in detail about both plans to criticize State officials way back on March 17, 2020, see:
I updated that post several times, tweeted it at least a dozen times, and distributed this post widely many times since then.
I have many NJ based main stream media reporters on my twitter feed, yet not one of them broke a sweat to hold state officials accountable for these failures.
Instead, they let Gov. Murphy and State official mislead and flat out lie to the public to cover up their failures.
New York Gov. Cuomo finally has been held accountable for his failures and lies about the number of deaths in nursing homes.
The NY Attorney General even issued a scathingly critical Report of State failures, including false statements. (Could anyone imagine that kind of Report by NJ AG Grewal?)
When will the shoes drop for NJ Gov. Murphy?
[End Note: I sent NJ Spotlight Editor John Mooney this note:
Hi John – very disappointed with your “look back” – with the Cuomo debacle now exposed, I had hoped someone would hold Murphy accountable to his own DoH Pandemic Plan and Hazard Mitigation Plan, which found that a deadly pandemic was a “looming threat” and “inevitable”and warned of “50,000 deaths” and the collapse of the over-capacity health care system. Instead of holding them accountable, you let them use the Bush 9/11 Big Lie about a “failure of imagination” to cover for that. If you want applicable excerpts and links to the State documents, see:
- NJ Department Of Health Deploys The “Failure Of Imagination” Lie To Mask Massive COVID Failure