express-jwt secret should be set error when secret is set - node.js

Question

In my web app, I'm using express-jwt, but for some reason the secret refuses to be loaded and i do not understand why.
const express = require('express')
import { createClient } from "redis"
import { UserApi } from "./api/users"
const jwtExpress = require('express-jwt')
(async () => {
//load in dotenv
require('dotenv').config()
const app = express()
const client = createClient()
//Check redis
client.on('error', (err) => console.log('Redis Client Error', err))
//Connect to redis client
await client.connect()
//Create API instances
const ua = new UserApi(client)
//Initialize middleware
app.use(express.json())
app.use(jwtExpress({ secret: "test", algorithms: ['HS256']}).unless({path: ['/token', '/test']}));
//Create routes
//test
app.get("/test", function(req, res) {
res.send("got")
})
//signup - creates user
app.post("/signup", async function(req, res) {
const u = {email: req.body.email, password: req.body.password}
try {
const {token, refreshToken} = await ua.create(u)
res.send({token: token, refreshToken: refreshToken, user_email: u.email })
} catch (error) {
res.status(400).send({error: error.toString()})
}
})
//login - logs in user
app.post("/login", async function(req, res) {
const u = {email: req.body.email, password: req.body.password}
try {
const token = await ua.login(u)
res.send(token)
} catch (error) {
res.status(400).send({error: error.toString()})
}
})
//refresh - refreshes token
app.post('/refresh', async function (req, res) {
const u = {email: req.body.email, refresh: req.body.refreshToken}
try {
const token = await ua.token(u.email, u.refresh)
res.send(token)
} catch (error) {
res.status(400).send({error: error.toString()})
}
})
app.listen(3000, () => {
console.log("server up")
})
}) ()
Could the async function be a problem? This is a copy of the error I receive:
if (!options || !options.secret) throw new Error('secret should be set');
^
Error: secret should be set
at module.exports (C:\Users\user\Projects\music-app\backend\node_modules\express-jwt\lib\index.js:20:42)