Analysis: How each state has fared in the pandemic, scorecard on tradeoffs

From the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the toughest decisions about how to combat the virus fell on state leaders. Which businesses should stay open and which should shut their doors? Should schools close and for how long? Should masks be mandated?

The answers weren’t obvious. State officials had limited information about the virus, and the trade-offs were difficult. Protect residents’ health and instruct them to stay home – but risk driving companies out of business and accelerating unemployment. Keep businesses open – but risk a rise in hospitalizations and deaths. Close schools to control spread – but risk damaging kids’ education.

There was no optimal way to make those choices, and we’re still debating them. But nearly two years after the first cases of Covid-19 were detected in the United States, we are beginning to get enough data to start assessing the implications of those policy choices.

POLITICO’s State Pandemic Scorecard pulls together what we know so far about how states fared during the pandemic, and how the choices each made impacted its residents, businesses and schools. The scorecard groups available data for policy outcomes into four categories — health, economy, social well-being and education — and generates scores in each area between zero and 100.