Missouri Governor Insists on Sending Kids Back to School, Says ‘They’ll Get COVID, But They’ll ‘Get Over It’

A Republican governor stated in a radio interview late last week that children have to go back to school in the fall and that some of them will get COVID-19 but they will “get over it,” according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

With spirited debates across the country about the reopening of schools amid the coronavirus, in an interview with The Marc Cox Show last week, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said, “These kids have got to get back to school. 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.”

In a recent tally, according to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the coronavirus has killed 1,130 people in the state and the state has recently set a record on Saturday with 958 new cases, an 87% increase from the previous week.

His political opponent, State Auditor Nicole Galloway, who is expected to be the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor, had this to say.

This is stunning ignorance from @GovParsonMO on how COVID-19 affects children. He admitted that he’s okay with your kids (and your families) getting the deadly disease when he sends them back to school. Does he not realize multiple American kids have died after being infected? pic.twitter.com/UZtjt043Fs

— Nicole Galloway (@nicolergalloway) July 17, 2020

In an email, Dr. Alex Garza, incident commander of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said, “We worry about those in school who are not children — teachers, support staff and volunteers. Many of those people will have a much more serious response to the virus and that is what we want to avoid. These children could also come home and spread the virus to others in their household who could also be at a greater risk of a serious outcome.”