New Jersey Real Estate Report

From NJ Spotlight:

Tracking sites suggest early vaccinations lagging in NJ

New Jersey officials say they are pleased with how the state’s coronavirus vaccine program has launched at hospitals, and health care and labor leaders reported few significant glitches with the process to date.

But questions remain about the pace of immunizations at the hospital-based vaccine clinics, which began administering the vaccines to at-risk health care workers early last week, and state officials declined Tuesday to provide updated data on how many sites are now operating and how many people have been immunized thus far.

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A New York Times analysis of the first week of vaccine shipments reported that New York state administered 19,000 doses of the Pfizer product, or 22% of the 87,750 doses it received. West Virginia used nearly 2,800 doses, or 17% of its initial shipment; Rhode Island administered more than 1,200 doses, or 12% of its early allotment; and Massachusetts dispensed 6,200 doses, some 10% of what it got from federal officials.

New Jersey initially received 76,000 vaccines and had administered less than 2,200 by Friday, or under 3% of the total received, according to the Times. By Sunday afternoon, state officials said, some 8,700 people had been immunized at 26 hospital-based clinics, but they declined to provide updated figures Tuesday.

Data reported by the Washington Post on Monday — which included new shipments and inoculations provided over the weekend — indicated the pace of immunizations was accelerating in some states. By then, New York state had administered 38,000 doses (17% of total deliveries), Florida had immunized 43,700 people (using 14% of its supply), and Pennsylvania had inoculated 17,700 individuals (10% of its shipments), despite a slow start the first week.  (The Post still listed New Jersey as administering less than 2,200 doses.)

Murphy’s office declined Tuesday to respond to questions about the rollout or provide updated figures on New Jersey’s progress. The DOH also declined to share new vaccination totals, suggesting updates would be made available at the governor’s regularly scheduled briefing Wednesday.

From WaPo:

Moderna vaccine shipments set to arrive in states on Monday, Operation Warp Speed logistics chief says

Shipments of the second coronavirus vaccine approved by health regulators are set to arrive in states Monday, according to the Trump administration’s vaccine operations chief, one week after front-line health workers received the first shots in the U.S. government’s mass vaccination campaign.

Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, said Saturday that distribution was underway for the vaccine developed by Massachusetts biotechnology company Moderna in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, following the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to clear the shot late Friday.

Workers were packing the vials into boxes at distribution centers run by the medical wholesale giant McKesson, Perna said. FedEx and UPS trucks are slated to depart Sunday and carry the freezer-temperature containers to their destinations. The government has also begun shipping ancillary kits including needles, syringes and other supplies to help administer the shots, according to Perna.

From Northjersey.com

‘Historic day’ in pandemic fight as health care workers first in NJ to get COVID vaccine

At 8:10 a.m. Tuesday, with a single needle prick to nurse Maritza Beniquez’s arm, New Jersey began its counterattack on a virus that has killed more than 17,000 of its residents, crippled whole sectors of its economy and shattered the routines of everyone from preschoolers to nursing home residents. 

The shot felt ‘round the state came 286 days after the first patient in New Jersey was diagnosed with the coronavirus disease and nearly a year after reports of a previously unknown disease emerged from central China.

It was administered at University Hospital in Newark, located in the hardest-hit county of this hard-hit state. Since March, the hospital has discharged more than 1,200 coronavirus patients, seen 269 die and lost 11 of its staff members to the disease, including one just last week.

From CNN:

US Covid-19 vaccinations expected to begin Monday as CDC head gives final nod

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Robert Redfield gave the final nod Sunday to the first coronavirus vaccine for the United States, clearing the way for shots to start. 

Redfield accepted the recommendation of the agency’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine may be given to people 16 and older.

The first shots are expected to begin on Monday.

“This official CDC recommendation follows Friday’s FDA decision to authorize the emergency use of Pfizer’s vaccine. As COVID-19 cases continue to surge throughout the U.S., CDC’s recommendation comes at a critical time,” Redfield said in a statement.

“Initial COVID-19 vaccination is set to start as early as Monday, and this is the next step in our efforts to protect Americans, reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and help restore some normalcy to our lives and our country.”

From the NYT:

F.D.A. Clears Pfizer Vaccine, and Millions of Doses Will Be Shipped Right Away

The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use on Friday, clearing the way for millions of highly vulnerable people to begin receiving the vaccine within days.

The authorization is a historic turning point in a pandemic that has taken more than 290,000 lives in the United States. With the decision, the United States becomes the sixth country — in addition to Britain, Bahrain, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico — to clear the vaccine. Other authorizations, including by the European Union, are expected within weeks.

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Pfizer has a deal with the U.S. government to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine by next March. Under that agreement, the shots will be free to the public.

Every state, along with six major cities, has submitted to the federal government a list of locations — mostly hospitals — where the Pfizer vaccine is to ship initially. In populous Florida, the first recipients will be five hospitals, in Jacksonville, Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Hollywood. In tiny, rural Vermont, only the University of Vermont Medical Center and a state warehouse will get supplies.

From the NY Times:

F.D.A. Advisory Panel Gives Green Light to Pfizer Vaccine

Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine passed a critical milestone on Thursday when a panel of experts formally recommended that the Food and Drug Administration authorize the vaccine. The agency is likely to do so within days, giving health care workers and nursing home residents first priority to begin receiving the first shots early next week.

The F.D.A.’s vaccine advisory panel, composed of independent scientific experts, infectious disease doctors and statisticians, voted 17 to 4, with one member abstaining, in favor of emergency authorization for people 16 and older. With rare exceptions, the F.D.A. follows the advice of its advisory panels.

With this formal blessing, the nation may finally begin to slow the spread of the virus just as infections and deaths surge, reaching a record of more than 3,000 daily deaths on Wednesday. The F.D.A. is expected to grant an emergency use authorization on Saturday, according to people familiar with the agency’s planning, though they cautioned that last-minute legal or bureaucratic requirements could push the announcement to Sunday or later.

The initial shipment of 6.4 million doses will leave warehouses within 24 hours of being cleared by the F.D.A., according to federal officials. About half of those doses will be sent across the country, and the other half will be reserved for the initial recipients to receive their second dose about three weeks later.

From NJ Business Magazine:

NJBIA’s 62nd Annual Business Outlook Survey

In last year’s Business Outlook Survey, most respondents said they were anticipating an economic downturn. 

But no one saw this coming in their 2020 vision. 

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an economic meltdown, with unforeseen closures of operations and record unemployment, to say nothing of consumer confidence as masked shoppers treaded lightly throughout the nation. 

Nowhere has this been more felt than in New Jersey, the state that maintained its shutdown for the longest period and has been a national outlier in terms of pace of reopening and capacity levels. 

Many of the results of NJBIA’s 2021 Business Outlook Survey are what you might expect for such a devastating plunge of New Jersey’s economy. Revenue losses were severe, with a whopping 76% of respondents experiencing decreased earnings through the first eight months of 2020 – including some deeper losses in healthcare and transportation.

Moreover, 77% said they believe they will continue to incur losses as the survey was being fielded in September – with 27% saying they would continue to lose revenue through the rest of 2020 and 33% forecasting continued losses through the first half of 2021.

There certainly was no shortage of efforts by employers to right the ship during the stormy seas of 2020. Some 56% said they sought additional or alternative funding sources through federal and state loans and grants, while 59% reduced expenses and overhead. Among those decreased expenses were reduced salaries (20%), furloughed employees (22%), and laid-off workers (23%). 

Recovery-wise, 47% said they will either take more than a year, or never will, generate profits lost during non-essential business closures. 

And, looking ahead to 2021, healthcare coverage could certainly be impacted as a result of this reduced revenue. Out of the 72% of respondents who offered health insurance in 2020, 28% of them said they’ll discontinue that coverage in 2021. 

Concerns about increasing the minimum wage and the potential legal impacts of recreational cannabis were also raised, as in years past. But with the onset of the coronavirus, a new worry has emerged in the form of litigation brought by those who claim they contracted the disease while at the workplace. 

With all of this, there was the expected negative outlook for New Jersey’s economy in 2021, particularly compared to the forecast for the national economy. 

Interesting piece on the lone dissenter at the CDC:

CDC advisory panel’s lone dissenter on why long-term care residents shouldn’t receive Covid-19 vaccine first

When a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee voted Tuesday to recommend residents of long-term care facilities should be at the front of the line — with health care providers — for Covid-19 vaccines, the lone dissenting voice came from a researcher who studies vaccines in older adults.

Helen Keipp Talbot — who is known by her middle name — raised serious concerns during the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices about using the vaccines in the frail elderly, noting there are no data yet to suggest the vaccines work in this population.

All the U.S.-based Phase 3 trials of Covid vaccines have to include people 65 and older. But none has specifically tested the vaccines in people who are in long-term care. One can’t assume findings in people over age 65 who are healthy enough to be accepted for a clinical trial are indicative of everyone in that demographic, she said.

At an earlier ACIP meeting, Talbot warned that vaccinating this population at the start of the vaccine rollout is risky, because long-term care residents have a high rate of medical events that could be confused as side effects of vaccination and undermine confidence in the vaccines. “And I think you’re going to have a very striking backlash of, ‘My grandmother got the vaccine and she passed away,’” she said at the time.

From Science:

CDC advisory panel takes first shot at prioritizing who gets the first shots of COVID-19 vaccines

Health care workers and elderly people living in long-term care facilities should receive top priority for COVID-19 vaccines in the United States if, as expected, one or more becomes available next month in limited supply. That’s what a group that advises the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on such fraught issues decided today in a near unanimous vote.

After hearing detailed presentations from CDC scientists who explained the rationale for this specific prioritization scheme, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 13 to 1 to support their proposal. Under the scheme,  the first phase of vaccination, known as 1a, would begin with about 21 million healthcare workers and about 3 million adults who live longterm care facilities. As spelled out in the four-hour long virtual meeting, these groups are at highest risk of becoming seriously ill or even dying from COVID-19, and protecting them first, in turn, reduces the burden on society.

“I agree strongly with the decision of the committee,” says Stanley Perlman, a veteran coronavirus researcher and clinician at the University of Iowa who advised the ACIP but is not part of it. “The discussions were incredibly thoughtful with everyone recognizing that we needed to make difficult choices. Of course these allocation issues will become irrelevant once there are enough doses of useful vaccines.”

CDC representatives spelled out the allocation plans for Phase 1b and 1c, but the advisory committee did not discuss those today. The proposed phase 1b would target “essential workers”—for example, school staff, police, grocery workers, and bus drivers–while phase 1c would target adults over 65 and adults of any age who have high-risk medical conditions. The CDC now must decide on whether to accept the phase 1a recommendation, and then states and local jurisdiction will make the final decisions about this and later prioritizations.

Stay Home Thanksgiving Illustrated:

From the Star Ledger:

N.J. scraps COVID-19 state-by-state travel advisory, calls for all travelers to quarantine

With coronavirus cases rising across the country, New Jersey is abandoning the state-by-state formula it has used the last five months to determine its quarantine travel advisory, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Wednesday.

Instead, a day before Thanksgiving, the state is now asking people who travel from any U.S. state or territory except immediate neighbors New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Delaware to voluntarily self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving.

Murphy is also urging people to avoid all unnecessary travel to and from the state.

From CNN:

Pfizer and BioNTech apply for FDA emergency use authorization for coronavirus vaccine

Pfizer and BioNTech on Friday submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization for their coronavirus vaccine candidate.

This is the first coronavirus vaccine to seek regulatory clearance in the United States. 

“It is with great pride and joy and even a little relief that I can say that our request for emergency use authorization for our Covid-19 vaccine is now in the FDA’s hands,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a video shared on Friday. “This is a historic day, a historic day for science and for all of us. It took just 248 days to get from the day we announced our plans to collaborate with BioNTech to our FDA submission day.

“We have operated at extraordinary speed in our clinical development program, from concept to regulatory filing, while always maintaining our focus on safety.”

The vaccine, known as BNT162b2, could potentially be available for use in high-risk populations in the United States by the middle to end of December, Pfizer and BioNTech said in a statement earlier Friday. The vaccine requires two doses a few weeks apart, and protection is achieved 28 days after the first shot. 

The submission to the FDA is based on results from the Phase 3 clinical trial of Pfizer’s vaccine, which began in the United States on July 27 and enrolled more than 43,000 volunteers.

From the Star Ledger:

N.J. small businesses struggled to pay November rent, study says 

Small businesses in New Jersey struggled to pay their November rent at a higher rate than businesses across the country, according to a new study.

And it’s even worse for minority-owned businesses.

Sixty-seven percent of minority-owned businesses surveyed in the state couldn’t afford to pay their full November rent. That compares to 44% of minority-owned businesses nationwide, said the November Rent Poll by Alignable, an online network of small business owners with more than 5 million members.

The survey questions showed New Jersey businesses — in many categories — are faring worse than the national average:

• 35% of New Jersey business couldn’t pay their full rent in November compared to 32% nationally
• 37% of women-owned businesses in the state couldn’t pay their full rent compared to 35% nationally

When it comes to cash reserves, small businesses in New Jersey are also doing hurting more, the study said.

In New Jersey, 42% of small businesses reported that their cash reserves will run out by the end of the year. That number compares to 22% nationally.

The survey also found 16% of New Jersey small business owners are already out of cash reserves. Nationally, it’s 12%.

From the Star Ledger:

N.J. counties, towns may order 8 p.m. curfew on nonessential businesses to fight coronavirus hot spots, Murphy says

New Jersey counties and municipalities now have the authority to order nonessential businesses to close at 8 p.m. to help slow the spread of the coronavirus under a new rule Gov. Phil Murphy signed Thursday as the state deals with a second wave of the pandemic.

The announcement came the same day new restrictions go into effect for Garden State bars and restaurants that limit the hours of operation for indoor service and also for interstate indoor school sports.

New Jersey on Thursday reported 3,517 more COVID-19 casesand 18 additional deaths.

“Municipalities and counties do not have to impose additional operating-hours restrictions if they do not wish to do so,” Murphy said after he announced his plans to sign the new executive order at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.