NEW YORK — With more than 600,000 COVID-related deaths in the United States, there's a push in Congress to create an independent coronavirus commission to investigate the nation's response to the pandemic.
For Pamela Addison this is personal. The Waldwick woman lost her 44-year-old husband, Martin, to COVID-19 last April.
"I am haunted by the fact that my husband died alone. I couldn't be with him because it was the start of the pandemic, so I feel like it will give me some closure that I am yearning for that I haven't had," the mother of two said. "There are 600,000 families who need answers and who have lost someone they loved more than anything in this world."
Sabila Khan's dad, Shafqat, was at a rehab center when he contracted COVID. She never saw him again.
"It truly takes my breath away to imagine the fear, isolation and trauma that my father suffered during the last week of his life," said Khan, who joined others outside University Hospital in Newark on Monday, calling for an independent investigation.
Related
The bipartisan panel would look at government coordination, testing challenges and PPE supplies, among other things.
"Now we must learn from this horrible experience," said former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.
New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, who is co-sponsoring the bill, said this isn't about politics.
"This commission is not for Republicans. It is not for Democrats, it is for the American people," Menendez said. "This is not about pointing fingers. It is about identifying what went right, what went wrong, learning from our mistakes and making sure that we do not repeat them again."
To critics who say this is about blaming former President Donald Trump, Menendez says, "I say to them, in fact, this commission will span both the Trump and Biden administrations and any before them if the failures that are detected go back further in time."
The legislation calls for 10 commissioners to review everything top down — federal, state and local.