“You played politics with this virus, and you lost,” criticized New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the spring of 2020.
Embarrassingly for ousted Gov. Cuomo, he spoke too soon.
This victory lap, unduly antagonistic toward the leaders of Florida and Texas, needs to be rescinded three years after its premature pronouncement.
A new study by the Paragon Health Institute statistically confirmed what honest observation taught us long ago.
One of the researchers, Dr. Joel Zinberg reported in the NY Post, “States like New York that forced severe, prolonged lockdowns did not significantly improve health outcomes compared with less restrictive states — and had much worse economic and education outcomes.”
More government mandates led to worse outcomes for the citizens of that state.
The study compared each state’s Oxford Government Response Index scores with the economic, health, and educational outcomes. Additionally, results were adjusted for the percentage of the population who were elderly and various industries that were centralized in a specific state.
Across the board, the more government restriction imposed on a state, the worse the economic and educational outcomes. Not only that, but these restrictions did not result in increased health.
Comparing one of the most restricted states, California, with one of the most relaxed states, Florida, the study found that both had similar health outcomes.
Although, of course, Florida experienced an inflow of political refugees while California experienced a mass exodus.
Americans voted for their preferred style of governance with their feet, and with their lives.
As previously reported on the COSA blog, in 2022 nearly 15% of Republicans said they had moved or were planning to move in the next year to a region that better aligns with their political or personal opinions.
Two lessons are clear from this study by the Paragon Health Institute:
One, more government restrictions result in less favorable outcomes for its citizens; and two, Americans are willing to make dramatic lifestyle changes to avoid government overreach.
Those harsh words of Gov. Cuomo have transformed into a mirror for his own governance failures. But they should also haunt any politician who forgets the lessons of 2020.
Less is always more when it comes to the government.
