Study: GOP states, which maximized individual freedoms, fared better during pandemic than Democratic states that pushed lockdowns

By ramontomeydw // 2022-04-14

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A study gave Democratic states low marks when it comes to their Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) response, while Republican states received high marks. The study published by the Committee To Unleash Prosperity (CTUP) graded all 50 U.S. states from A to F by comparing COVID-19 outcomes based on the number of fatalities, the economy and impact on education. Utah took the top spot with an A+ grade, while Florida ranked No. 6 with its A rating. On the other hand, New Jersey landed last with an F- grade, with California, New York and the District of Columbia (D.C.) joining it at the bottom. According to the New York Post, the bottom 10 states imposed "the most severe pandemic lockdowns and were among the last to finally reopen schools." These places "had high age-adjusted death rates, high unemployment and significant [gross domestic product] losses," stated a commentary to the study. Furthermore, the study revealed that unemployment was two full points higher on average in states that imposed "severe lockdowns" compared to those that did not. Study author and CTUP co-founder Stephen Moore said on April 11 that "shutting down their economies and schools was by far the biggest mistake governors and state officials made during COVID, particularly in [Democratic] states." (Related: RFK Jr.: CIA-led 'military response' to pandemic was meant to drive democracy from the world and usher in global totalitarianism.) He and his co-authors wrote: "One of the wisest policy decisions was to ultimately let the 50 states and their governors and legislators make their own pandemic response policies. Federalism worked. States learned from one another over time about what policies worked most and least effectively in terms of containing the virus, while minimizing the negative effects of lockdown strategies on businesses and children." "States which maximized the individual freedoms of business owners, consumers, workers and parents and allowed their citizens to make their own risk assessments without government mandates had the best performance. It turns out that in most cases, citizens living in states with minimal government interventions – including Nebraska, Iowa, Florida and others – were able to make wise health-conscious assessments without an abundance of government rules and mandates."

Nursing home policies on COVID-19 may have played a role in poor performance of some states

The CUTP study named the top 10 states in order: Utah, Nebraska, Vermont, Montana, South Dakota, Florida, New Hampshire, Maine, Arkansas and Idaho. The bottom 10 states are as follows: Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Nevada, Maryland, Illinois, California, New Mexico, New York, D.C. and New Jersey. The study pointed out that nursing home policies may have played a role in some states, especially New York and New Jersey, performing poorly when it comes to preventing COVID-19 deaths – a sentiment the Post also espoused. "States that were transferring COVID-19 patients from hospitals to nursing homes also tended to systematically under-report nursing home deaths," wrote the authors. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo mandated that nursing homes cannot turn away COVID-19 patients discharged from the hospital. The policy that was effective for two months caused the death of thousands in nursing homes. To make matters worse, Cuomo and his aides concealed the actual death count stemming from his policy. Meanwhile, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy defended his decision to put COVID-19 patients into state-run nursing homes as the "right course to take." He deflected the state government's responsibility for the deaths and even pointed his finger at nursing home staff for inadvertently infecting residents. The CTUP study also touched on Florida's decision to lock down nursing homes instead of the general population. Back in March 2020, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis imposed a ban on nursing home visits for a 30-day period. But the GOP governor provided exceptions for "compassionate visitations." "Advocates of a 'focused protection' strategy have suggested that sheltering the high-risk could reduce overall mortality – an approach adopted by Florida," wrote Moore and his co-authors. Pandemic.news has more stories about how different states responded to COVID-19. Watch Alex Jones talk about Connecticut, one of the bottom 10 states in the CTUP study, asking nursing homes to accept discharged COVID-19 patients. This video is from the Truth or Consequences channel on Brighteon.com.

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Nursing home policies on COVID-19 may have played a role in poor performance of some states

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