CJ Griffin Quoted in Article on New Jersey Still Refusing to Release Documents a Year After Wanaque Deaths
Attorney CJ Griffin quoted in northjersey.com article, “A year after Wanaque deaths, NJ still refuses to release documents showing its response.” The article explains that a year after one of New Jersey’s deadliest viral outbreaks claimed the lives of 11 medically fragile children at a Wanaque long-term care facility, the public is no closer to knowing how health officials responded to the 76-day crisis.
CJ Griffin, an attorney fighting the case for NorthJersey.com, said all records should be released with minimal redactions because the Wanaque outbreak was a significant public health issue that affected the most vulnerable members of society: children so severely disabled that they are likely to spend the rest of their lives in a long-term care facility at government expense.
“The public has a right to know if there were any weaknesses in the state’s response to the outbreak and that what the state was telling the public at the time was the full story,” Griffin said.
The department “has opted to redact almost everything and block access to all of its substantive email communications that would shed light on DOH’s response to the crisis or how the facts unfolded at the time,” Griffin said, expressing disappointment “given the administration’s public statements in favor of transparency.”
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