Study Finds Florida Handled COVID-19 Among the Best, California and New York the Worst
April 11, 2022 Updated 12:31 P.M. ET
WASHINGTON (FCV) – The Committee to Unleash Prosperity conducted a study on state performance during the COVID-19 pandemic on areas like economy, education, and mortality from COVID-19 and compared states, Fox News reported.
It measured how well state governments handled the virus. According to Steve Moore, the co-founder of the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, “Shutting down their economies and schools was by far the biggest mistake governors and state officials made during COVID, particularly in blue states,
“We hope the results of this study will persuade governors not to close schools and businesses the next time we have a new virus variant.”
According to the report, New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois were among the worst in dealing with COVID-19 – they performed “poorly on every measure.”
The blue states “had high age-adjusted death rates; they had high unemployment and significant GDP losses, and they kept their schools shut down much longer than almost all other states,” it said.
However, in stark contrast, Florida, Utah, Nebraska, Vermont, Montana, and South Dakota – governed by Republicans – received the best scores, with Florida ranking 6th. Fox noted that of the top 15 states, 13 are governed by Republicans.
The study found no correlation in states that enacted strict travel and dining restrictions with death counts.
“The study verifies other studies which have found that locking down businesses, stores, churches, schools, and restaurants had almost no impact on health outcomes across states,” it went on. “States with strict lockdowns had virtually no better performance in COVID death rates than states that remained mostly open for business.”
Governor Ron DeSantis very briefly halted various parts of the Florida economy early in the pandemic, but after just a few weeks, the Florida economy was broadly open and DeSantis regretted opposing lockdown rhetoric. He received strong criticism from left-wing leaders and pundits for opposing vaccine and mask mandates.
