The Metropolitan St. Louis St. Patrick’s Day Committee, under leadership from Joseph B. McGlynn, Jr., has stated they do not plan to cancel the St Patrick's Day Parade, slated to take place less than 4 days from now. The parade typically has about 150,000 people marching, and around 300,000 spectators, according to STLmag. This is an unacceptable risk for spreading COVID-19.

During the 1918 Spanish Flu, the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century, Philadelphia also held a parade. “In the streets of downtown Philadelphia 200,000 people gathered to celebrate an impending allied victory in World War I. Within a week of the rally an estimated 45,000 Philadelphians were afflicted with influenza.” The organizers of the parade downplayed the risk, claiming that they would be fine with “a campaign against coughing, spitting, and sneezing” but it was not enough. This sounds like St. Louis’s current plan of asking parade attendees to self-report "if you’re sick, please enjoy all the highlights at home from all of our social media posts throughout the weekend; if not, we’ll see you on Saturday!"

There are already confirmed COVID-19 cases in the St. Louis metro area, in addition to many which may remain undetected due to inadequate testing. Visitors from out of state will add potential cases to the mix. Without emergency measures, COVID-19 will spread like wildfire. 

Dublin, San Francisco and Boston have all canceled their St. Patrick's Day Parades. We need St. Louis to follow their lead and cancel the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, to protect the health of the people of St. Louis, the people of Missouri, and ultimately, the people of the world.

Our city did the right thing in 1918, and we intend to do it again in 2020. We call upon Governor Michael Parson, Mayor Lyda Krewson, and the members of the Metropolitan St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee, to realize the potential risk to the parade’s participants, the city, and the state of Missouri, and to ask for the parade to be canceled or postponed.

Please sign this petition, and please call Mayor Krewson at (314) 622-3201 or @LydaKrewson and Governor Parson at (573) 751-3222 or @GovParsonMO to let them know that you want the Parade canceled.