MORRIS COUNTY — Senator Joe Pennacchio today warned that the Murphy Administration’s over-reaching coronavirus policies are putting the lives and finances of the state’s residents at risk and is calling for the Senate to investigate the Administration’s handling of the crisis.
“I am in extreme disagreement with the Administration and its over-reaching policies during these difficult times,” said Senator Pennacchio (R-26). “Some of the policies make no sense. How does closing parks and beaches keep you safe, but crowding people together in isolation is supposed to spare us from this contagion?
“How is forcing sick patients to wait until they are so sick they need to be admitted to overcrowded hospitals before they can be treated with hydroxychloroquine – a cheap effective and safe medication – considered good medical practice?
“Since when does the Governor and Attorney General know more about medicine than doctors? I have been fighting to unshackle our doctors and give them the tools necessary to treat patients unencumbered by government restrictions,” Senator Pennacchio continued.
“The people of New Jersey are anxious to get back to work and return to their normal lives. Public policy cannot be one size fits all, especially when it’s based on faulty and constantly changing data,” said the Senator. “Demanding continued isolation until this virus ‘goes away’ is a flawed and dangerous approach.
“Ridding ourselves of this pandemic may still require isolation of those who are most at risk, testing to determine who has the COVID-19 virus, testing for antibodies to discover who has had the virus and recovered, and implementing a treatment protocol using hydroxychloroquine as both therapeutic, early treatment and/or a preventative measure.
“To date, the Administration has hidden behind the bureaucratic skirts of agencies that failed to adequately prepare us for this pandemic – the FDA, CDC and the national and international health institutes. New Jersey deserves better,” concluded Senator Pennacchio.
“In the interest of our residents, the Senate Select Oversight Committee will determine what policies and their timings were and were not in the best interest of the citizens of New Jersey, and to what extent the Governor was or was not thinking of our Constitutional rights as these policies were being formulated.”
