This article originally appeared in The Detroit News March 17, 2026.

Michigan’s lockdown architects are lining up to tell us it was a mistake.

The latest comes from Robert Gordon and Nicholas Bagley. Gordon was director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services until January 2021. Bagley served as legal counsel to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

Writing in The New York Times last month, Gordon and Bagley criticized pandemic school closures, arguing that public officials kowtowed to government unions.

“Democrats kept schools closed long after businesses had reopened,” they wrote, “long after it was clear that Covid rarely hurt children and, in some cities, long after vaccines became available. School districts with stronger teachers’ unions kept kids out of the classroom longer. It’s one reason students in blue areas lost more ground academically.”

Gordon ran the state public health agency during Michigan’s most aggressive closures, so it’s a stunning admission coming from him. Bagley, on the other hand, has consistently and openly criticized school closures.

It was Gordon who signed sweeping emergency orders, including orders that closed schools. It was Gordon who said the “science is settled” on mask mandates, social distancing and dining restrictions. And it was Gordon who was forced out of the Whitmer administration because he thought her rules should be more aggressive.

Gordon’s admission comes after Whitmer herself backed away from her Covid record. After years of insisting that her lockdown rules were based only on data and science, the governor started revising the narrative. Speaking with CNN’s Chris Wallace in 2023, Whitmer admitted her rules were “a little more than we needed to do.” Then last year, speaking with podcaster Caleb Hammer, Whitmer said, “We were doing the best we could with very little or very bad information.”

The Whitmer administration showed shoddy disregard for its own rules during the crisis. Whitmer broke social distancing guidelines to join a march in Detroit, arguing it was worth the risk of spreading Covid to honor George Floyd. The governor partied with friends at the Landshark Bar & Grill in Lansing while public health officials fined businesses for violating her mandates. Administration officials Tricia Foster and Elizabeth Hertel (who replaced Robert Gordon) vacationed out of state after Whitmer warned Michiganians not to head south for spring break.

So why the newfound candor about lockdown mistakes? Time has eased the political and legal risks for government officials. Few politicians lost elections over their Covid records, and courts have absolved the state of liability, ruling against college students and small business owners who sought compensation.

Whitmer has admitted her orders were based on bad information but says she does not wish to revisit those decisions. “None of us wants to go back and relive that,” she said.

Well, we should. Admitting a mistake is a good first step, but it is only a first step. Michigan’s leaders acted without fully considering the tradeoffs. They insisted that a scientific consensus supported their lockdowns. They ridiculed dissent and resisted accountability. And they now fail to explore the lessons learned.

A bipartisan review commission could assess the state’s pandemic response and offer insights so we are prepared for the next emergency.

But first, consider what needs reviewing. The orders that Whitmer imposed, chief counsel Mark Totten vetted, Robert Gordon signed and Dr. Joneigh Khaldun defended had a massive economic and human cost. They separated people from dying loved ones, shuttered businesses built over lifetimes, and left a generation of children academically behind. There will be no restitution for those costs.

So far, there isn’t even an apology.

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