By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Illinois just got an “F” grade for its poor Covid policies.
A new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research ranked states’ response to COVID based on mortality rates as well as costs due to lockdowns, mandates and school closings. It found that Illinois was the nation’s 5th-worst performer.
The paper is the most thorough review we’ve seen so far relating state government Covid policy to actual results. In addition to mortality, the study considered mitigation effects on the economy and education.
Only four states, California, New Mexico, New York and New Jersey, handled the pandemic worse than Illinois. In all, there were five states given an “F” grade.
All of Illinois’ neighbors scored better. Iowa, Missouri and Indiana all received “B” grades. Kentucky scored a “C.” Wisconsin and Michigan came close to Illinois with a “D” grade.
The state’s draconian lockdowns and restrictive mandates hit Illinoisans hard.
Illinois ranked badly, 46th to 43rd, in the economic performance indicators of job losses and GDP growth. It also scored a low 43rd on keeping schools open during the pandemic.
Ironically, all the damage inflicted – from deaths of despair, closed businesses, lost jobs and children kept out of school – didn’t make Illinois a high performer for Covid mortality. Adjusted for age and healthcare differences among states, Illinois ranked right in the middle of the country for deaths: 24th overall.
Lots of pain and suffering, especially by our children, for little to no benefit.
Contrast Illinois’ failures to a state like Florida, which caught a lot of grief for its pandemic policies. Despite the overheated rhetoric that Florida’s Covid policies were “reckless,” the state scored an “A” for its overall performance with a rank of 6th-best of all the states.
Illinois’ had an overall average unemployment rate of 4.7%, ranked 46th, under some of the nation’s most strict Covid rules. Florida, meanwhile, kept its economy open and its people working. The state’s average pandemic unemployment rate was far lower at just 2.1% – ranked 15th.
Illinois only had 37% of children in school, on average, during the pandemic. Only seven states had a fewer percentage of kids in school. In Florida, 96% of the state’s kids remained in the classroom. The Sunshine State had the 3rd-best record.
And here’s the kicker: for all the pain Illinoisans were forced to endure, the state actually performed worse than Florida on Covid mortality. After adjusting for age and healthcare differences, Illinois had a Covid death rate of 284 per 100,000. Florida’s rate was 277.
NBER’s holistic analysis tells us the state’s extended economic lockdowns were a mistake. So too were the months of remote learning and the mask mandates imposed when students finally returned to class.
The governor, by the way, is still running the state via executive order after more than 700 days.
We don’t know if Covid is over yet, but we do know Illinoisans should be far more resistant to Gov. Pritzker’s future Covid policies.
Read more from Wirepoints:
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This is very incomplete information to make this conclusion.
How did the other states rank? Is the increase in deaths per thousand part of the calculation? My understanding is that other states are ranked used similar policies to Illinois ranked pretty high.
The NBER study data and conclusions are inherently biased based on its lack of standard metrics for education “success” and its lack of accounting for population density or total population. One might expect the most populous and/or densely populated states to take more draconian measures, such as school lock downs, than less populated states. So it is no surprise that the more populous states fall to the bottom of the education rankings and ultimately the composite scores. There also is an inherent bias of education “success” when defined solely as attendance, rather than a commonly used national metric such as… Read more »
With all the resources Big Media has in Illinois and Chicago, tiny Wirepoints embarrasses them repeatedly simply by publishing the truth and asking the right questions.
The last sentence of your article says it all-“Illinoisans SHOULD be far more resistant to Governor Fat Bodys covid policies”……but,they wont,-according to JB,Allison Arwady and the rest of the democrat dopes,they follow the “science”-JB saved lives so I ‘ll vote for him again says the Chicago electorate