MIssouri Gov: Yep, lots of kids will contract #COVID19 and that's just fine with me.

When I first read the quote, I assumed it was either a paraphrase, out of context or sarcasm. Sadly, it was none of those:

A series of controversial remarks by Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on a St. Louis radio show are getting widespread attention — and some pushback.

In an interview on Friday with talk-radio host Marc Cox on KFTK (97.1 FM), Parson indicated both certainty and acceptance that the coronavirus will spread among children when they return to school this fall. The virus has killed 1,130 people in the state despite a weekslong stay-at-home order in the spring that helped slow the virus’ spread — and the state set a record on Saturday with 958 new cases.

...Parson’s comment on the coronavirus signaled that the decision to send all children back to school would be justified even in a scenario in which all of them became infected with the coronavirus.

St. Louis-area schools are expected to release their reopening plans on Monday.

“These kids have got to get back to school,” Parson told Cox. “They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get COVID-19, which they will — and they will when they go to school — they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctor’s offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.”

Good God.

Even if COVID-19 was harmless to children (it isn't...around 6% of confirmed cases to date are in children under 18 and at least 170 Americans under 24 had died of it as of July 9th...and the developmental and life-long health impact of the virus on children who survive is as of yet unknown), it's not like those children live by themselves.

Guess which adults they're bound to infect?

• Teachers
• Counselors/Other Staff
• School Administrators
• Bus Drivers
• Cafeteria Workers
• Custodial Workers
• Their Parents
• Their Grandparents
• Any other adults they happen to come into contact with

Other than that, his plan makes perfect sense.

By an amazing coincidence, this story just went live at the Washington Post about a tragic story here in my home state of Michigan:

They depended on their parents for everything. Then the virus took both.

Now the Ismael children — 13, 18 and 20 — are struggling to cope with grief, but also with how to keep a car running, pay bills, be a family