Cass County COVID fumble: Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade would be a bad play
Super Bowl LV is set. The Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Buccaneers on Feb. 7 in Tampa, Florida. Win or lose, Kansas City won’t host a traditional Super Bowl parade this year. Amid the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, the team and City Hall announced Monday that a city-wide celebration is off.
Enter the three-member Cass County Commission, which on Friday extended an invitation to the Chiefs and their fans to host a possible victory parade in the southeast part of the metropolitan area.
“We noted with interest recent comments made by Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas preemptively canceling a Super Bowl victory parade should the Chiefs run it back and win Super Bowl LV,” the county commissioners wrote in a letter addressed to team president Mark Donovan. “While we share the mayor’s optimism for another Chiefs Super Bowl win, we do not support his preemptive cancellation.”
Donovan could not be reached Monday for comment. But the Chiefs should soundly reject the invite. The still-dangerous coronavirus is not bound by geographical location. Missouri continues to lag behind in its response to the pandemic. And the state’s vaccine distribution plan remains anemic — at the very bottom of the list for first doses.
What would happen if thousands of people from various places descended upon Cass County for a day? The outbreak could prove catastrophic.
The Kansas City area should learn from the deadly mistake Philadelphia made in 1918, in the midst of that year’s influenza pandemic. On Sept. 28, 200,000 people coursed through the streets in the Fourth Liberty Loan Drive parade to show support for the troops fighting World War I.
Within 72 hours of the parade, every bed in Philadelphia’s 31 hospitals was filled. In the week ending Oct. 5, some 2,600 people in the city had died from the flu or its complications. A week later, that number rose to more than 4,500.
Attempting to slow the carnage, city leaders essentially closed down Philadelphia. We can’t afford a repeat here.
“While Cass County and the majority of our citizens would be honored to participate in any safe, responsible, and family-friendly celebration on behalf of another Chiefs Super Bowl win, it is too early to discuss,” Cass County Commissioner Ryan Johnson said. “Our letter to the Chiefs was an invitation only and we would not expect to hear anything from them until after the game.”
Chiefs fans from all over love their football team. Winning back-to-back world championships would be a tremendous accomplishment for any franchise, let alone one accustomed to postseason heartache until last season culminated with a world title and a jubilant parade through the city.
But the overture from Cass County to host a championship celebration is tone deaf. As of Monday, 6,707 cases of COVID-19 had been reported to county health officials. At least 77 people have died of coronavirus in the county since March, according to the health department.
The seven-day average testing positivity rate from Jan. 6-10 was 12.39%. The county’s seven-day average has not dipped below single digits since October. Last week, the state average was 10.2%.
Since Jan. 16, at least 194 people in Cass County have tested positive for COVID-19.
Exposure to the coronavirus is not worth the risk of attending a large gathering in the dead of winter. Cass County was one of several Missouri counties that refused to issue a mask mandate or implement serious restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus. And the motive behind the invite remains a mystery.
What is known is that a superspreader event such as a championship victory parade would unnecessarily put the public’s health at risk. Cass County officials should rescind the offer to host, and the Chiefs should exercise caution and politely decline the request.