In a three-part chat that took place in March 2021 on the “In the Bubble: From the Frontlines” podcast, Bob Wachter, M.D., Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, or “Dr. Bob,” interviewed New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Governor Murphy gave his experience as a leader since the start of the pandemic and spoke of how things stand now in his state and what changes he predicts to take place during 2021.* 

Early challenges

The first three months after the first case of COVID-19 in New Jersey were a mad scramble for “knowledge, ventilators, PPE, bed capacity, [and[ testing capacity,” said Murphy. “March, April, and May were just heavyweight fights every single day.”

From the very beginning, Murphy’s team was determined to make decisions based on science and data, but that only drove their practical, logistical actions. Despite their best early efforts, “we were losing people by the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands every single day,” he said, “and these were precious lives, lived, loved, lost.” Murphy was determined not to skim over the very human tragedy of the situation. He started memorializing different people at every press conference to convey “yes, science data, but let us never let this become abstract.”

Politics and communication

Murphy had no idea that the pandemic would become so politically partisan. In his opinion, there were both positive and negative elements to the federal government’s early response. From April through June of 2020, his office was in touch multiple times a day with the White House, including various teams there and the president himself. 

“There was a spirit of finding common ground,” Murphy said. Still, he feels that the lack of a national strategy and consistent rules and guidelines took a terrible toll on the country. “We’re still paying the price for that,” he added. 

When asked about how he addresses the needs and desires of people who want to get back to normal and concerns for people’s health and safety, Murphy insisted, “The first thing you have to do is check the politics at the door, the chips fall where they may.” It’s critical, he said, to “be straight with people, even when it sucks,” while at the same time “giving a credible path forward, with hope. And that’s, frankly, still where we are today.”

Moving forward

New Jersey was the last state to start opening up, said Murphy, but he feels strongly that his caution has been justified, given the new surges that have occurred in states that opened up too soon. He doesn’t want to “lurch forward” and “take two steps forward” now, only to take “one step back next month.” The state started opening a bit in September 2020, including allowing indoor dining at 25% capacity, which recently increased to 35%.

Going forward into the remainder of 2021, Murphy doesn’t see 20,000 people crowding into sports arenas or concert halls by June, but he does anticipate other indoor entertainment venues, restaurants, and the Jersey Shore to be available and used come summer. Murphy stated that, barring a new catastrophe, schools are going to be open at full capacity and on regular schedules in September, too.

Given ongoing concerns about the virus, its variants, and unknown factors concerning the vaccines, Murphy also anticipates continuing precautions, such as face masks, disinfecting surfaces, and hand washing. “The science is still fairly new,” he concluded. “As the saying goes, ‘We’re building the plane as we fly it.’”

Check out parts two and three of this reflection on the COVID-19 pandemic on the “In the Bubble: From the Frontlines” podcast.

*Dr. Bob Wachter (Host). (2021, Mar. 10). A Year of COVID and Predictions for the Year Ahead (Part 1‪) [Audio podcast episode]. In the Bubble: From the Frontline‪s‬ (Lemonade Media).

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-year-of-covid-and-predictions-for-the-year-ahead-part-1/id1504128553?i=1000512367529 

Much about the novel coronavirus, i.e., COVID-19, is still not fully understood. As research progresses and our knowledge of the virus increases, information can change rapidly. We strive to update all of our articles as quickly as possible, but there may occasionally be some lag between scientific developments and our revisions.