(Concord Monitor) A major study has singled out New Hampshire as a model among U.S. states in response to COVID-19, having suffered virtually the lowest cumulative death rate from the pandemic.
The state’s success, the study said, came about partly because of relative wealth, partly from lack of racial and ethnic groups that were harder hit by the disease, partly “by being more aggressive than most states in addressing its social and racial disparities” for vaccines, and partly because of public trust.
“Highest levels of interpersonal trust”
According to an article in the publication ThinkGlobalHealth from the Council on Foreign Relations, which ran the study along with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation:
“New Hampshire also reports the nation’s highest levels of interpersonal trust — the trust that people have in one another — that makes it easier to mobilize against a pandemic.”
The study, published in the British medical journal Lancet, says that if all states had done as well as New Hampshire in limiting COVID deaths, the country would have had 505,624 fewer deaths between January 1, 2020, and July 31, 2022, a difference of more than 40 percent …
The Lancet study can be seen at:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00461-0/fulltext#seccestitle150
The ThinkGlobalHealth article can be seen at:
https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/not-all-us-states-struggled-equally-against-covid-19
