the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Paramus NJ, The membership of the Veterans of Foreign Wars is shocked to learn of the 39 additional unreported COVID 19 deaths of NJ Veteran Memorial Home residents. The failure to report these deaths leads to the appearance of a cover up by the Administration. While we are supportive of the recently announced Attorney General’s Office investigation into the deaths, it is unacceptable that it took over five months for this investigation to begin. Back in April, the State had in its possession a U.S. Department of Health report which concluded that our veterans, their spouses, and Gold Star parents, were denied the basic human right of a dignified existence. The contents of this report along with the shocking high death rate of the residents should have served as a catalyst to immediately initiate an investigation, not five months later. The lack of transparency and failure to act for five months has eroded any confidence in the Administration’s ability to police itself and the VFW calls on the State Legislature to demand for the Attorney General to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the failures that caused these deaths.
