Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas just saved lives with new shelter-in-place order
A few days ago, we said a total lockdown was coming as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic — even if, because of Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s reluctance to take any drastic action, it was likely to arrive here dangerously late.
Fortunately, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and other leaders in Jackson, Johnson and Wyandotte counties are not waiting any longer. Late Saturday afternoon, Lucas announced that in all of these counties, a stay-at-home order will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday and remain in place until April 24 unless amended.
“It’s real, and it’s here, and we can’t hold tight” and pretend otherwise, Lucas said in an interview with The Star Editorial Board. “It’s time, and Lord knows we can’t wait on our governor to do it.”
He said that all public health officials are indicating that if we buckle down and shut down, many fewer lives will be lost, whereas “with this laissez-faire approach we’ve been seeing,” the reverse would all too clearly be true.
This is an enormous relief, because this shutdown — “It’s more shelter in place, though we’re calling it a stay-at-home order because that sounds friendlier,” the mayor said — gives us the best possible chance to survive a public health emergency on a scale that no one alive today has ever seen. Officials issued a similar order for St. Louis County and St. Louis City on Saturday.
Lucas has been proactive throughout this unprecedented health crisis.
No elected leader ever wants to have to order citizens to stay at home, given the obviously devastating economic repercussions. But this was a choice between awful and far, far, worse.
Better to be fleetingly blamed for overreaction than to be judged far more harshly, and forever, for failing to act sooner. Lucas said that some officials seem to confuse their job with that of running the Chamber of Commerce, and he’s not doing that.
Not long ago, Lucas said, he was planning to attend the Big 12 basketball tournament at the Sprint Center. His advice to other officials who still aren’t dealing with all that’s changed since then is, “Get over what you thought this was going to be. We need to be more mature than that.” Lucas has also experienced COVID-19 on a personal level, he said, because an older friend in Kansas City has the virus.
One of the most frightening aspects of this global pandemic is the partisan divide we’ve seen in reaction to the risk here in the U.S., both from officials and among the public. If that divide persists, it’s going to leave red states and rural areas far more vulnerable. To wait until the number of patients has already overwhelmed our health care system is to wait too long, especially when hospital beds and protective equipment are already in short supply.
An exception has been Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who along with Democratic governors in New York, California, Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey has been out in front in protecting his constituents.
Parson keeps talking, even now, about the role of personal responsibility in stopping the spread of COVID-19. But “government has significant responsibility,” Lucas said, and we’re grateful he feels that way.
This story was originally published March 21, 2020 at 4:57 PM.