COVID killed, but so did the response

When stopping the spread of the COVID virus mattered most, Washington state officials failed badly

Key Findings

1. State mortality data show that the governor’s restrictions may have increased the number of deaths by 50% during the COVID pandemic.

2. While some lock-down requirements may have helped, they were not as meaningful as has been claimed, and states that imposed fewer restrictions had lower per-capita death rates.

3. The strict lock-down restrictions imposed a health cost of their own, with state data showing that for every two deaths from COVID, there was an additional excess death...