GOP States Rank Highly in New Study Evaluating Pandemic Responses

A new study found that California and New York were among the states that handled the COVID-19 lockdowns the worst.

The Committee to Unleash Prosperity study looked at states' performance in the economy, education, and mortality amid the coronavirus pandemic. The study also looked at how states responded to the pandemic.

"Shutting down their economies and schools was by far the biggest mistake governors and state officials made during COVID, particularly in blue states," Steve Moore, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity co-founder, told Fox News Digital.

"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 survey, New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois were among the states that responded to the pandemic the worst. New Jersey was the worst-performing state, the study found.

Those 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," the report said.

On the other hand, Utah, Nebraska, Vermont, South Dakota, Florida and Montana all received high scores in the study. The six states are all currently Republican-governed. Montana was governed by Denomcrat Steve Bullock until his second term as governor ended in 2020.

According to the report, 13 of the top 15 states in the study are governed by Republicans.

"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," the report determined. "States with strict lockdowns had virtually no better performance in COVID death rates than states that remained mostly open for business."

Florida, whose GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis did away with COVID restrictions earlier on in the pandemic, ranked 28th in mortality, the study found. California, which took on strict lockdown procedures, came in 27th in terms of deaths.

Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.