This article originally appeared in The Detroit News December 2, 2025.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who took some of the most aggressive measures in the country during COVID-19, recently said she has no desire to review her pandemic management. Appearing on the Financial Audit podcast Nov. 3, the governor deflected when host Caleb Hammer questioned Michigan’s lockdown policies.

“Listen, Caleb, none of us wants to go back and relive that,” she said. “We were doing the best we could with very little or very bad information.”

This is short-sighted. Whatever the lessons of COVID-19 may be, we won’t learn them if we refuse to discuss them. We should not compound the mistakes of the lockdowns by deliberately ignoring those mistakes.

COVID-19 was the most significant global pandemic in a century. Whitmer responded aggressively, disrupting Michigan’s economy, businesses, schools, universities and civic institutions. We should indeed go back and review those decisions.

A pair of Princeton professors, Stephen Macedo and Frances Lee, have written a comprehensive review of the political decisions in response to the pandemic. Their book, “In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us,” questions whether government interventions saved lives.

In a conversation with Michael Barbaro of The New York Times, the authors also criticized the public debate surrounding lockdown policies. “There was a premature policy consensus,” said Macedo. “There was an unwillingness to re-examine assumptions. And there was an intolerance of criticism and divergent points of view that emerged fairly quickly in the pandemic, and that hurt us.”

Whitmer’s desire to avoid relitigating pandemic decisions is understandable. There is little pleasure in reviewing errors and mistakes. That’s human nature. And in the political environment, where a leader’s every word will be scrutinized and attacked, reviewing failures may be an occupational hazard.

During the pandemic, “follow the science” became a mantra. Well, assessing one’s assumptions and mistakes is embedded in the scientific method. Experimentation illuminates the right answers.

With nearly six years’ distance from the pandemic, panic has subsided and political passions have cooled. Now is the proper time to evaluate the state’s response.

So, I offer a recommendation to the governor: Appoint a commission to assess the state’s pandemic response. Set the deadline for a written report for just after you leave office. The commission should have a bipartisan composition to strengthen its credibility. Public input should be encouraged to enhance trust in the process. The United Kingdom is conducting such a formal inquiry and could provide a model.

Fill the commission with serious people. Ask two former leaders to co-chair the effort, such as former Michigan Supreme Court chief justices Bridget Mary McCormack and Maura Corrigan. Include other credible voices, such as Dr. Randal Baker, whose lawsuit helped end Michigan’s pandemic emergency orders, and Dr. Mona Hanna, who helped expose the Flint water crisis. Include leaders from relevant sectors: the University of Michigan chief of infectious diseases, the Michigan Chamber, Detroit school superintendent Nikolai Vitti, and parents of school children.

The governor would need to release internal deliberations and waive privileges that would prevent candid testimony from her advisors, such as former chief legal counsel Mark Totten. Former administration officials should be encouraged to cooperate, including Robert Gordon, who served as director of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Assess what we did, what we learned and what we should do in response. Review the state’s expansive emergency powers, which allowed the governor to act unilaterally.

Don’t focus on blame; focus on clarity and insight. This should not be a political cudgel. It should aid future policymakers.

Michigan will face new public health challenges and emergencies, but we won’t be prepared if we don’t learn the lessons of COVID-19.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.