COVID ravages Missouri and Parson’s No. 1 priority is business liability protection?

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson spent a good portion of his state of the state speech Wednesday talking about COVID-19, which is a good thing.

He discussed the courage and hard work of health care workers. He bragged about providing the COVID-19 vaccine for 400,000 Missourians — never mind that, as of this week, Missouri trailed the first inoculation rate for every other state.

What was the governor’s first priority? Speeding up vaccinations? Better protection against the virus? Providing more funds to cash-strapped health departments?

Um, no. “I hope the first piece of legislation to hit my desk this year is a clean COVID-19 liability protection bill,” he said.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. The governor’s enthusiasm for protecting business owners before anyone else has been clear for some time. He’s brought up this issue before, repeatedly.

But the governor’s business-friendly protectiveness ignores the much bigger issue: The coronavirus is still dangerous and deadly. The COVID-19 death rate in Missouri exceeds the rate in California, Ohio and Minnesota, among other states.

To date, more than 450,000 Missourians have caught the virus, a higher per capita infection rate than New York or Florida.

It seems fairly obvious that job one in Missouri — and all states — remains limiting the reach of the coronavirus. That means aggressive vaccinations, reasonable restrictions on public activity and a statewide mask requirement. Spending more on public health agencies would also help.

Parson seems less interested in these approaches than in protecting businesses from lawsuits.

It isn’t clear why. In purely practical terms, there does not seem to be a stampede to the courthouse to sue over COVID-19 exposures. The governor and his allies may be responding to a problem that doesn’t exist.

More importantly, though, there is no reason private enterprises should be exempt from scrutiny for their practices during the pandemic.

If businesses needlessly exposed their customers and clients to a deadly disease, on the other hand, victims deserve to have their cases heard. Jurors should be able to weigh evidence and allocate blame.

The Missouri legislature is currently discussing liability protection bills. The main measure would protect business owners from lawsuits unless “clear and convincing” evidence shows “recklessness or willful misconduct.”

If a business owner posts a sign, the bill says, the customer or client assumes all risk for COVID-19 exposure that may occur on the premises. It sets a one-year time limit for claims.

We think a better test is reasonableness: If a business owner or public agency unreasonably exposed workers and customers to the coronavirus, liability could be found.

Again, juries should be able to make the decision, not one-size-fits-all legislation or Gov. Mike Parson.

And while lawmakers should pay attention to this issue, it should not be the top priority. The Missouri economy will recover more quickly if fewer people get sick from COVID-19, not because businesses have been given carte blanche to leave customers to their own devices.

As we have said, Missouri is not fully awake from the pandemic nightmare. Mitigation and prevention remain at the top of the to-do list, and not protecting businesses from lawsuits that may never come.

This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.