COVID Death Rates by State

Back in the long-ago of the pandemic, I wrote to compare Minnesota and Iowa's case numbers and wondering how things would turn out.

As we now know, it's not over, and it's foolish to try to make final pronouncements. Anyone who does will soon be bitten by hubris.

But the Star Tribune today published an editorial with national comparative data, including deaths per 100,000, which shows how Minnesota (and one assumes its government) did in managing the pandemic, as much as it could be managed in this time of intractable Republican malevolence:


Those gray levels hide a lot of complexity. 

The color appears to show Minnesota in the middle of deaths like a lot of other states, which it is. But a couple of things are important to note, and are revealed in the linked version, where you can mouse over the states and see the percentages for each state:

• Minnesota is one of the lowest in the 200–300 range, at 228, while three other states barely made it into the range (Texas 299, North Dakota 298, and Massachusetts 296).
• Among its regional peers, even the two others in the range are significantly higher: Wisconsin at 249 and North Dakota at 298.
• Iowa came in at 303, just outside the 200–300 range, and Illinois at 300 exactly.
  

As we head toward election season, everyone should know that the Minnesota governor's race is between an imperfect Democrat who has messed up plenty of things and an unprincipled Republican who appears willing to bend even his medical license to get elected as he plans to run against the sitting governor's COVID policies, which obviously have been relatively successful.

In writing this editorial, the Star Tribune is clearly laying a path toward a future endorsement of Democrat Tim Walz, the only choice for governor of this state.