According to a recent analysis of state lockdowns by WalletHub, of the top 10 states with the most restrictive COVID lockdowns only one was Republican, North Carolina. Of the ten states with the least restrictions only two were Democrat.
It sadly reveals that what started as a health pandemic has quickly transformed into a political one.
And, despite the different levels of restrictions, there was essentially no difference in COVID death rates between the different states. Essentially, politicized lockdowns don’t work.
Issues and Insights explains:
Wallethub has been ranking states based on their COVID-19 restrictions – things such as mask mandates, limits on travel and gatherings, school closings, liability protections, work-at-home requirements. […]
Of the 10 that are imposing the most restrictions, all but one are liberal Democratic states. Of the 10 with the fewest restrictions, all but two (Iowa and Wisconsin) are conservative Republican.
Surely this is evidence of how politicized the pandemic had become under President Donald Trump, right? Those Republican states are defying “science,” and staying open despite the harm they are doing to their people. Isn’t that what we’ve been hearing?
Well, that would be true if state restrictions were closely correlated with coronavirus deaths.
But a separate chart published by Wallethub shows that there is little apparent correlation between coronavirus death rates and restrictions. As the chart below shows, the spread in death rates is almost identical between the high-restriction and low-restriction states.
This fits with findings we keep seeing, which say that lockdowns, mask mandates, school shutdowns, and other intrusive government regulations are massively expensive and disruptive but appear to have a negligible impact on the disease.
READ: Blue States’ COVID Restrictions Are Killing Jobs, But Not The Virus
Several studies have shown that other than destroying one’s economy, lockdowns are not effective in stopping the spread of COVID.
READ: Lockdowns Not Linked With Lower COVID Death Rates, New Study Finds
READ: New study: Coronavirus lockdowns don’t save lives
READ: COVID-19 death rate is 75% lower in states that didn’t lock down: WSJ
READ: The Results of Europe’s Lockdown Experiment Are In
READ: COVID Lockdowns Have No Clear Benefit vs Other Voluntary Measures, International Study Shows
READ: California Has the Strictest Lockdown in the US—and the Most Active COVID Cases (by Far)
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