- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of State of Affairs with Steve Adubato has been provided by Kean University.

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[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Welcome everyone, Steve Adubato.

Listen, we're taping this at the end of June but this will be relevant for a long time, and she is always relevant.

She's Dr. Denise Rodgers, vice Chancellor for Interprofessional Programs, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences.

It's good to see you, Dr. Rodgers.

- Good to see you as well.

Thank you.

- I'm gonna read from an article from our good friend and colleague, Lilo Staton, who works with a great team at NJ Spotlight News.

Okay?

Here's what she says, quoting you, "These vaccines are phenomenally good "at keeping you from dying from COVID.

"and mostly they're pretty good at keeping you "from ending up in the hospital, "but these vaccines are terrible "at limiting the spread of the disease."

Just terrible.

Question, how in your mind at this point, almost two and a half years in, should we be changing these vaccines to achieve what that is not being achieved here to afford in terms of protecting us from getting it?

- Yeah, I think Steve, whenever I talk about the vaccine, I have to reiterate the first point I made which is they're phenomenally good at keeping you from dying and keeping you out of the hospital because I don't want anyone to think that my comments suggests that you shouldn't take the vaccine.

- And I have every time, every opportunity, every notice CDC sends, I'm first in line, if I can be, so.

- Fantastic.

- Let's get out there with that.

Thank you.

- Fantastic.

So, but the vaccines are not as good as we would hope they would be.

They don't prevent you from getting the disease from many, many people, from many people, they don't prevent you from spreading the disease.

The good news is it does appear that people who are vaccinated, who get COVID, are contagious for a shorter period of time.

So that may reduce some spread, but there are people who are working, researchers who are working on other types of vaccines that may actually do a better job of blocking the virus from getting into the body in the first place, and being able to infect you in the first place.

And I would just like to put it out there that we need to encourage that.

- So here's the thing, I have too many friends who have said to me, "Steve, I got COVID.

"I got it twice.

"I don't need the vaccine."

I'm not in a position to nor would they believe me, whatever I told them anyway, as an advocate of the vaccines, they're convinced they're good.

For how long and in what ways, Dr. Rogers?

- Probably for some short period of time, they probably are good.

We know that the immunity conferred by having COVID is actually not as good as the immunity conferred by getting vaccinated.

And so again, we need to encourage people to get vaccinated.

What we also, I think don't talk enough about is this reality that you described.

We all know multiple people who have had COVID and by and large, most of them have done phenomenally well but we need to be reminded that a subset of people actually don't do well with COVID and end up with what we call long COVID.

And certainly with the Delta variant, it was estimated that up to 10, maybe more, percent of people who got COVID ended up with long COVID.

It appears that there may be somewhat less long COVID as a result of Omicron, but it still happens with Omicron.

And so it isn't that this is sort of a benign disease that we can just say, "Oh, I get it, I get over it.

"I'm fine."

It's not, it still has significantly higher death rates.

And so we don't want to become too cavalier as we think about COVID.

- Yeah.

And especially if you're unlucky and some of us who have had very close family members who were the unlucky ones who got COVID and it was not a cold, that's all I'm gonna say.

It was way beyond that.

Let me try this.

The public health system, the Centers for Disease Control, the CDC, being criticized by many including its leader, right, who has at times appeared in the eyes of many to send conflicting, confusing messages about what we should be doing, when we should be doing it, why we should be doing it?

Is it okay for the CDC to just say, "You know what?

"We just don't know."

- It should be because what we know is the human body is an incredibly, complex organism.

And you layer on top of that, a novel virus and viruses in and of themselves are also very complex in the way in which they act.

And people want us in science to know more than we do.

- It's science.

- It's science, exactly.

But what's interesting to me is that the things that we do know well, people reject.

So we know well that these vaccines are safe and they keep you from dying and getting outta the hospital.

We can't predict what variants will do.

We do know that coronaviruses are the type of viruses that will develop variants, and therefore the character of that disease will change over time as we've seen it happen.

I think CDC is trying to play catch up.

I do think there are times when CDC attempts to be more reassuring and we underestimate the intelligence of the American public to be able to understand that in science, there are still some things that we don't know and therefore we urge you to be more cautious.

And what do I mean by being more cautious?

I mean, there are times, for example now, where I encourage people, particularly people who are at any kind of elevated risk, to continue to wear masks indoors.

- Inside, outside, sorry for interrupting Dr. Rodgers, inside, outside?

When?

Where?

How?

- Inside, inside.

It appears that that contagion outdoors is very, very rare.

And so certainly this time of year, have your gatherings as much as you can.

- Okay, being going into the sum-, we're in the summer right now, go ahead?

- Yes, yes.

And so, but you know, mass social distancing, hand washing, all those things we talked about early in the pandemic are still very effective in reducing the spread of this disease.

- Let me follow up on this.

You've seen how politics has invaded public health.

There are lots of people who believe there are political sides to COVID, political sides to where you, where do you stand on COVID?

Like, where do you stand on increasing taxes?

How the heck, Dr. Rodgers, did COVID and the treatment of COVID and protecting ourselves and the people around us from COVID, how the heck did it become so politicized?

- Yeah, it's actually one of the great tragedies of public health history, without question.

And it came, I think from very mixed messages at the very beginning of the pandemic.

Remember we were getting messages out of Washington that said, "Oh this is no worse than the flu."

We were getting messages that says, "Oh it'll be gone by Easter."

And those things didn't happen.

- Directly, directly from, I don't care what your politics are, folks.

It's your business.

From the President of the United States, check it, "This will be gone in a few weeks by Easter."

"Then, there's some light you shoot under your arm, "right, Dr. Burkes?

"That's what happens and it goes away."

When that comes in a public briefing, does that confuse the heck out of people and they say, "I'm with Trump "so that means this can't be real."

- Yes.

- This is a disease.

- Yes, this disease has nothing to do with politics.

And what we're seeing... - Does it care if you're Republican or Democrat?

- Well, it's interesting, Steve, 'cause what we see now is that disproportionally more Republicans are dying from COVID because they are more resistant to getting the vaccine and also much more resistant to wearing masks because that's the other part of the tragedy.

It's not just, it will disappear but it's also not reinforcing to people.

Do those things that work to protect yourself like wear a mask indoors.

- Wow.

Listen, vote for who you want to, have your own politics but public health is public health.

Yes, there are things we do not know, but when you have people like Dr. Denise Rodgers sharing important information and dedicated her life to public health, it's worth just listening.

That's enough for my endorsement for you my friend, Denise.

Dr. Rodgers, thanks so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- My pleasure.

Thanks for having me, Steve.

- I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Dr. Rodgers.

We'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are honored now to be joined by state Assemblywoman, Eliana Pintor Marin, chair of the state assembly budget committee.

Good to see you assembly woman.

- Nice to see you, Steve.

Thanks for having me on.

- Well, we have you on literally days before the state budget has to be struck by the constitution by July 1st, last day of June has to be signed.

This will be seen a little bit after, so we don't know what's gonna happen.

Let me ask you this, the issue of property tax reform, what is, or relief what is the most significant aspect of that?

And is that the governor's proposal on the so-called anchor property tax relief plan?

- So Steve, obviously the governor did propose the anchor program, which would be in place of the homestead rebate.

As everyone is already aware, that the speaker and the Senate president also have come together with the governor to kind of increase that and it'll be a total of over $2 billion of tax relief.

- Okay.

And does that have to go through the budget committee or is it voted on by the entire, both houses of the legislature?

- Well, it'll be voted on through a budget bill first and then it will be voted on for, through both houses.

- Let, let me try this, the debate that's been going on, it goes beyond this budget, It's a bigger picture fiscal question about New Jersey.

So much money has come from the federal government, COVID relief money, billions of dollars if you will.

So the debate is how do we spend this money, but how much of their, how much discussion is taking place, Madame chairwoman, around, Hey, what do we put aside?

Because the feds aren't gonna keep sending this money.

The economy may turn.

State revenues, in terms of tax income coming in, could go down.

Where's the rainy day fund?

- So there's a difference, right?

One is the ARP money, which is the through the American Rescue Plan.

- Federal dollars to the states.

- Right?

So that's separate.

What we did obviously find throughout the last two years it was especially through last year is that we do have a large surplus, right?

We, sales tax was up.

The economy has been doing really, really well, you know, in conjunction with state and federal, I think reforms, right, that we've been doing and putting things into play.

So there are separate issues.

Number one, I think that there will be a consensus.

I strongly believe in that.

That we will put a large amount of our surplus money away and hold it for next year.

I think everyone not just at the state level, but I think federal wise, is concerned about next year's outlook.

You know, the inflation, rising cost of goods, services, potential unemployment coming down next year.

So I think I, I will, I feel at a very good place, Steve that right now the state of New Jersey will be putting a lot of that money aside for next year.

- I know that you know, that we've been focused on childcare for the last several years.

The issue becomes even more significant in the COVID and post COVID era.

Top- And you understand this better than most, given your background.

Top priority in terms of, from your perspective as it relates to accessible affordable childcare.

- That is actually one of the priorities that you will be seeing in this budget.

The figure is not yet agreed upon, but childcare tax credit is definitely something that will be seen in this budget and we would like to continue it next year as well.

I think until certain reforms are done and we've been working on that are seen to come through fruition.

I think that right now this is really a need for middle class families.

- You know, you represent a very diverse district, but you're based in the Ironbound of Newark, New Jersey.

A very, it's an extraordinary community for those who've never visited the Ironbound, do it.

It's great, but it's challenged, like any urban community.

We've been involved in a series dealing with urban matters, urban issues.

The Ironbound, while it's a close knit community and neighborhood, faces, what are the top two or three specific challenges the community faces?

- I think that obviously we've seen a huge rise in cost of rent, right?

Because obviously just home sales are through the roof.

And we've been seeing that just like the suburbs have been seeing that, the Ironbound specifically has gone through the roof.

So we are, we're dealing with high cost of rent.

We are also, although we are, we have a large population of undocumented.

Those are the ones that really have serviced us throughout the pandemic and continue to be part of our workforce.

So I think that making sure that they have what they need to provide food and and housing for themselves and their family.

I don't think that that's any different than a lot of other urban settings.

But I would say that obviously just infrastructure as a whole right?

It has been challenging as well.

The Ironbound with floods has continued to be an issue and the last thing I would say is just crime, which we've seen that as an uptick throughout all of our urban, and now we're starting to see it in suburban areas.

- You know, the baby formula shortage, huge issue.

You understand this, not just from a policy and legislative perspective, but as a woman, as a mom who gets this, here's my question.

What exactly can the state do?

What should the state be doing?

versus it's an industry problem, it's a supply chain problem, it's an avid problem that the federal government stopped them at a certain point and they had 40% of the market.

It has nothing to do with New Jersey, New Jersey can't do much, you say.

- Listen, I say that we've done, we've had a lot of policy initiatives, when we talk about milk banks that we've, you know, we've tried to do this for many years and we've put in regulation.

We know that that's not enough, but I think just as a state, we've been able to kind of come in play, have a a collaboration with pediatricians and have really been able thus far to kind of been able to offer a lot of our constituents ways and being creative of how to obtain formula, which I think is, you know, my kids are nine and six now and I can't even imagine some of the challenges that those moms have gone for.

Kind of makes me sad, just as a state, but just as an American that, you know, this is not a- our kind of an issue.

This is more of a, you know, third world country type of an issue.

And it does make me feel angry, upset, that this is what we're going through - But we are and we appreciate you talking about it.

And I wanna also acknowledge that the assembly woman was recently acknowledged by ROI, the digital platform, the ROI influencer is the power list of 2022.

I wanna acknowledge that.

And also the fact that she's not feeling well at all but she still chose to be with us.

And I assure you, her voice is even stronger when she's 100% Assemblywoman I cannot thank you enough for joining us, we appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve.

Thank you for having me.

I always appreciate the opportunity.

- All the best, stay with us, we'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are now joined by Evan Weiss, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Newark Alliance.

Good to see you Evan.

- Good to see you, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

We'll put up the website right away.

Tell everyone what the Newark Alliance is, and why it's more significant now than ever.

- So the Newark Alliance is the collection of nearly all of Newark's major institutions.

That's corporations like Prudential and Audible.

It's universities like Rutgers and NJIT, the major art centers, small businesses, law firms, et cetera.

What it really tries to do, is bring together the major players in the city to drive inclusive economic growth in Newark.

It's more important now than ever because COVID frankly, and the need to recover from the pandemic from an economic perspective, and also in the wake of George Floyd from a racial equity perspective.

So both of those missions are key to the broader mission of the Alliance, but the experience in Newark right now is just showing us that we need to be back, we need to be driving economic activity for both the big and small businesses.

- Evan, the term anchor institutions is used a lot.

Describe what that means, not just to Newark, but to a Camden, to a Trenton, Jersey City, places in Brooklyn, other places we are seeing outside of New Jersey, but we're a New Jersey centric series.

What's an Anchor Institution?

- So traditionally, an anchor institution was defined as really what people also call Ed's and Meds.

So educational institutions, and medical institutions like hospitals, meaning entities within a city that provide a degree of grounding, of economic activity in the face of for example, in the past, de-industrialization.

So a lot of economic development strategies were based off those, whether it's something like Cooper hospital in Camden, or Mass General in Boston.

It's a very common approach.

In Newark, we like to define a little differently.

We're fortunate to have had Prudential here for almost 150 years.

They're an anchor institution.

PSEG, same thing.

Over a hundred years in this city.

So while we are absolutely grateful to have excellent medical and healthcare, we're broadly in arts and education partners.

We wanna be inclusive, and to recognize the potential that these great companies have had in the city over time.

And what they can do, again to drive wealth for economic, and economic activity for all Newark.

- Evan, the other side of this, being born and raised in Newark and still having a pretty strong connection to the city in a lot of ways.

We know that real estate prices have gone up considerably.

The value of real estate particularly in the downtown area of the city, more valuable than ever before, more expensive than ever before.

But in and around Penn Station, the problem with homelessness is huge.

And the question becomes, as real estate values go up, as the cost of living in that part of the city of Newark goes up, does it not de facto push people out because it's simply not affordable?

- So I think both Governor Murphy and Mayor Baraka have been real leaders on the homelessness issue in particular, but also the idea of needing to establish more affordability in Newark.

So I think the answer to this, is that we need to see inclusive and equitable development throughout the city.

And I think that's being tackled in two ways, which is, for example, the Shaq Tower that just went up.

- The Shaq, I wanted to ask you about the Shaq Tower and a little about Queen, a little bit about Queen Latifah as well, and move on.

All Newarkers who have done pretty important things.

Talk about the Shaq Tower, and how that's connected to affordable housing, please, Evan.

- So the Shaq Tower is gonna be the largest multi-family building in Newark.

It's a huge development, generational development, but what's so incredible about it, is it is premised on the idea of preserving large scale number of affordable units in the heart of the downtown.

So this same building will be both one of the most luxurious buildings in all of Newark and New Jersey.

- Excuse me.

We're talking about the Shaq.

Shaquille O'Neil.

- Shaquille O'Neil.

Mr. O'Neil.

Yes.

- Okay.

(both laugh) Exactly.

- So Newark native, born and bred here.

This is actually his second of hopefully three projects in Newark.

He also did the movie theater further out into the wards.

So, but there is a huge number of affordable units in this building.

And I think that principle is one that both the Alliance, Mayor Baracka, and the governor have made clear, that if you wanna develop big in Newark, or anywhere in New Jersey, you need to have affordable set asides.

- So you're talking a very, they were talking about a lot of big businesses you mentioned, or anchor institutions.

A big project like the Shaquille O'Neil project, big stars like Queen Latifah, et cetera.

What about small business?

Where is the place for small business in all this, in this equation?

- To me, it's one of the central questions, is how do we get small business more connected to the bigger anchor institutions in this city?

And I think you can think about this from just who's going to lunch.

Seeing how fewer people have come back to Newark, and what that's meant for small business, for restaurants.

It's something we're really struggling with on how to address.

One of the whole ideas of an anchor institution is to drive economic activity, and that means to small business.

If all of the different anchor institutions that are part of the alliance, are getting their catering orders from Newark businesses instead of a national chain, that's victory there.

And I think we can go through example, whether it's a metal contractor, whether it's your accounting firm, there are so many opportunities for these big institutions to redirect their spending to Newark businesses, and to help grow them.

- Talk about high speed internet issues, and access to Newark residents and businesses.

Big issue.

- Absolutely.

So Newark has been in every century of American history, a key part of our infrastructure.

Whether that's the ports, the railroads, the highways, the airport.

That's been central to the city and its economic trajectory.

The internet is the 21st century version.

A lot of people don't know that the actual physical infrastructure behind the internet, the stuff that makes this conversation possible, a lot of that is centralized in Newark on Halsey street actually.

So Newark has the fortune from this immense infrastructure perspective to have that right here in the city.

It's, for old time Newarkers, it's underneath the old Bamberger store.

That's where the Newark node of internet is.

We wanna make sure that not only is this high speed internet for the corporations, for people around America who are making use of this infrastructure, but for everyday Newarkers.

And what we saw in the pandemic, was the impact of the visual divide in education for people who are trying to Zoom in from work.

If they're one of the many Newarkers doing that on their phone or not at all, that's something we can't have.

So we need to take advantage of the infrastructure that we're blessed with in this city, and make sure it's actually accessible and affordable to everybody here.

Whether you're in the South Ward, North Ward, wherever, it has to be beyond the downtown.

- Or the Ironbound.

- Or the East Ward or the West Ward, or any ward.

- Just wanna name all five wards in the city.

(laughs) - Yes.

- This is Evan Weiss.

He's the President and Chief Executive Officer of The Newark Alliance.

Evan, we thank you for joining us, and wish you and your colleagues all the best.

- Thank you very much, Steve.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato.

That's Evan Weiss.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Kean University.

Prudential Financial.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

PSE&G, The Fidelco Group.

PNC, Grow Up Great.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by NJBIZ.

And by The New Jersey Business & Industry Association.

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