Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was for a coronavirus shutdown before he was against it

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson teamed up with four other Republican governors to write a guest column this week for the Washington Post.

“Our states stayed open in the COVID-19 pandemic,” the headline reads. “Here’s why our approach worked.”

The coronavirus pandemic isn’t over, of course, so any claim that an approach “worked” is highly premature. Moreover, whatever Parson or any other elected official says is far less important than the facts on the ground, and in Missouri, where 9,341 people have been infected, the number of cases and deaths is still climbing.

The record must be kept straight if we are to learn anything in the current disaster. And on that score, Parson’s column is misleading and contradictory: No one who reads the op-ed will walk away with a true picture of what happened — and what is happening — in Missouri.

Take this claim, for example. “We have all kept our states ‘open for business’ and delivered food and other goods Americans need during this pandemic,” the column says.

First: Every state delivered food and goods during the past two months. Nothing special there.

It is true that the governors in Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and Arkansas, all co-authors of the op-ed, “stayed open” — they were among the very few governors who declined to issue statewide stay-at-home orders.

Missouri’s story is different.

On April 3, Parson announced a plan, literally called “Stay at Home Missouri,” that imposed limited restrictions on business and social activity across the state. Parson had faced severe criticism for his reluctance to fully address the statewide COVID-19 pandemic, and this plan was his answer.

“Now more than ever, we must all make sacrifices,” Parson said when he announced it.

At the time, it was widely reported that Missouri had finally joined the list of states on lockdown, and Parson did little to suggest otherwise. Now, the column in the Post reveals the truth: The governor’s order was designed to resemble a statewide shutdown — not actually be one.

As it turns out, Parson was for a lockdown before he was against it. (In an email, the governor’s office said, “Since the beginning of COVID-19, this administration has done everything possible to inform the media and Missourians,” but did not further defend or explain the op-ed.)

In fact, Parson has tried to split the difference on multiple occasions during the coronavirus crisis. The governors in Iowa and the other states made the wrong decision to stay open, but at least they made a decision. Parson wants to have it both ways.

Who did take the lead in Missouri? The state’s big city mayors, Quinton Lucas in Kansas City and Lyda Krewson in St. Louis. Their quick, decisive actions spared their cities, and the state, from greater pain.

The op-ed also claims the states maintained essential industries during the pandemic. “We knew it was critical … that our state economies keep moving,” the governors wrote. “Our beef, pork and poultry feed the world.”

Yes. And the people who work at Missouri food plants are falling sick at an astonishing rate. Parson should spend more time protecting their health and safety instead of co-writing a column claiming unique leadership during the pandemic.

In reality, Missouri’s coronavirus response has been slow, tepid and muddled. Not according to the op-ed, though: “Our approach has created a model for success that can be applied throughout the country,” it says.

Really? Missouri reported its first COVID-19 death on March 18. By Thursday, seven weeks later, COVID-19 had claimed 418 lives in Missouri. That’s a death rate roughly equal to California’s and worse than the coronavirus death rate in Kansas, Texas and Tennessee, among other states.

Missouri’s example is not one to follow.

It may be years before we can undertake a full accounting of how leaders handled this pandemic. During the past two months, though, Missourians have shown enormous forbearance in giving Gov. Parson room to make tough decisions.

They were right to give him that flexibility. It’s sad that Parson has responded by prematurely claiming credit for actions he didn’t take and for success he hasn’t achieved.

This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM.