Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was criticized and pressured by federal officers, akin to President Joe Biden and public well being czar Anthony Fauci, to again draconian restrictions. Now, criticism is coming from the other way: Former President Donald Trump claims DeSantis’s insurance policies had been too extreme, and that “Florida was closed for a protracted time period.” I coauthored a Paragon Well being Institute research that reveals each criticisms are improper. Florida applied wise COVID insurance policies and its COVID efficiency was among the many absolute best within the nation.
The Paragon research utilized an index of states’ COVID responses, together with actions akin to faculty and enterprise closures and masks mandates, developed by Oxford College. The research in contrast the stringency of state authorities responses with a set of well being, financial, schooling, and migration outcomes.
The stringency of state COVID restrictions was not considerably correlated with well being outcomes, as measured by age- and health-adjusted COVID mortality and all-cause extra mortality. For instance, Florida had one of many nation’s least restrictive COVID responses, however its age-adjusted COVID mortality charge was 8% decrease than the median state.
Extra extreme state COVID restrictions had been considerably associated to worse financial outcomes—will increase in state unemployment charges and reduces in state gross home merchandise—and to worse schooling outcomes, as assessed by whole days of in-person education.
Florida’s in-person education charge, which positively correlates with higher check scores, was among the many finest within the nation. Governor DeSantis’s insistence that colleges stay open protected Florida youth from instructional hurt, in addition to emotions of social isolation and despair, rising display time, and better ranges of weight problems skilled by so many youngsters elsewhere through the pandemic.
Our research additionally discovered a major correlation between migration and the severity of a state’s COVID restrictions. Merely put, individuals fled lockdown states and moved to freer states.
A strong testomony to Florida’s favorable COVID insurance policies is the numerous households who flocked to the Sunshine State over the course of the pandemic. Folks had been shifting to Florida previous to the onset of COVID, however the tempo considerably accelerated within the COVID period. From July 1, 2020 by means of June 30, 2022, 540,000 extra individuals moved to Florida from different states than left Florida for different states. That tempo was double the pre-pandemic pattern.
Scott Olson/Getty Pictures
On the identical time, lockdown-heavy New York and California, which already had giant pre-pandemic migration outflows, noticed a surge in out-migration. On web, New York State misplaced 650,000 individuals to different states and California misplaced 710,000 individuals to different states from the summer season of 2020 to the summer season of 2022. Many individuals from these states moved to Florida, which led the nation in inhabitants positive factors throughout this era.
My family of seven exemplifies the pattern. After enduring a 12 months of extreme pandemic restrictions, together with closed outside swimming swimming pools, playgrounds wrapped with police tape, and shuttered colleges, we left the locked-down Washington, D.C. suburbs and moved to Florida. Whereas Florida has a lot to supply, together with no state revenue tax and delightful climate and seashores, it was the state’s commonsense COVID insurance policies that introduced us right here, largely for a greater life for our youngsters.
President Trump’s declare that DeSantis’s insurance policies had been too extreme can be improper. The Oxford index reveals that Florida had one of many nation’s most restrained COVID approaches. Florida focused protecting measures for essentially the most weak, trusted people to make wise choices, and saved colleges and companies open when many different states continued broad lockdowns.
Whereas a couple of smaller and extra rural states by no means issued any stay-at-home orders, Florida was among the many final of the states that did so. Certainly, DeSantis was roundly criticized, on the time, for ready till April 1, 2020 to subject a stay-at-home order.
DeSantis was then among the many first governors to roll again lockdown measures in mid-2020. Whereas DeSantis’s COVID insurance policies had been controversial on the time, historical past has confirmed that Florida’s COVID response was higher than that of nearly another state. Florida households, in addition to households like mine who had been in a position to transfer through the pandemic, considerably benefited from DeSantis’s pushing again on the Washington public well being institution and pursuing wise COVID insurance policies as an alternative. We should not allow revisionist historical past to recommend a distinct narrative.
Brian Blase, an financial advisor to President Donald Trump from 2017-2019, is the president of Paragon Well being Institute and coauthor of the Paragon research, “Freedom Wins: States with Much less Restrictive COVID Insurance policies Outperformed States with Extra Restrictive COVID Insurance policies.”
The views expressed on this article are the author’s personal.