I just heard someone say that North Dakota and Arizona have way lower death rates from COVID than California, and that they've managed it without all our rules.

That's just not true! Everyone loves to bash California, but our death rate from COVID ranks 33 out of 50 states

Nearly 41,000 Californians have died from COVID -- about 1 of every 1,000 residents

If we had the same death rate as Arizona or North Dakota, we'd have around 75,000 dead. Even the rate of Florida, which everyone love to compare us to, would bring our toll to 50,000

Idk why people think California is doing so much worse than it is. It might be news coverage highlighting how big our surge has been -- it was undoubtedly huge, I don't dispute that -- or just that people like to make fun of California

the California-failed-at-COVID narrative feels like people's natural tendency to pick on tryhards. they mess up once and everyone goes in on them because it's surprising

so let me set the record straight: we did have a big spike, but overall our death rate remains relatively low

the relative part is important, because it's relative compared to other US states, and we're not doing so hot as a country. but within the context of the US, California's restrictions -- which have admittedly been bad for the economy -- have worked to slow the coronavirus

I also think that within California there's this fantasy that you could move to a less restrictive state and also escape the dangers of COVID and ... that's largely not true. That is just a fantasy

Maybe you could move to Hawaii, which has the advantage of being a literal island, or a more rural state where people are really far away from each other and just avoid everyone, but for the most part, fewer rules does not equal fewer COVID dangers

when things started to get out of control this fall, California imposed a stay-at-home order that brought down how much people were moving around. That has helped us turn the corner, though it may not feel like it was effective because it took a while to see the effects

Other states, like Arizona, did not take those kinds of actions when they saw cases rise this fall. In fact, officials often cited California's surge as reason not to do so. Now Arizona has the highest case rate from COVID in the nation

"Cara Christ, Arizona’s top public health official, said aggressive shutdown measures would not have staved off a spike.

'If you look at California, they have some of the strictest restrictions in the country and are still seeing elevated cases.'" https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01/05/covid-hospitalizations-los-angeles-oxygen/

If a state is on this list, its COVID death rate is higher than California's:

New Jersey
New York
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Mississippi
South Dakota
Connecticut
Louisiana
North Dakota
Arizona
Pennsylvania
Illinois
Arkansas
Alabama
New Mexico
Michigan
Iowa
Indiana
Tennessee

If a state is on this list, its COVID death rate is higher than California's:

Nevada
South Carolina
Georgia
Kansas
Washington, D.C.
Texas
Florida
Maryland
Missouri
Montana
West Virginia
Delaware
Minnesota
Wisconsin
Nebraska