A couple of weeks ago we published a new report establishing COVID-19 as the leading cause of death in Arizona during the pandemic.  Nationally, COVID-19 is the 3rd leading cause of death (behind cancer and heart disease).

COVID-19 is a distant 3rd (well behind heart disease and cancer) in states that had governors and health directors who made evidence-based intervention decisions and who properly executed key operational priorities.

In that initial report, we compared COVID-19 mortality in Arizona to Colorado and Washington State (two Western states with similar populations but with governors and health directors that used evidence rather than politics to drive their decision-making). COVID-19 was a distant third in those states.

Last week, we explored which other states also had COVID-19 as the leading cause of death in their state. Our new Data Brief entitled Arizona: The Only State in the U.S. Where COVID-19 Has Been the Leading Cause of Death During the Pandemic we establish that Arizona is the ONLY state in which COVID-19 has been the leading cause of death during the pandemic.

Our Data Brief displays the rate ratio for annualized crude COVID-19 death rates to heart disease death rates for all 50 states and the US, while Figure 2 in the Brief shows the rate ratio of COVID-19 deaths to cancer deaths.

There were five states in which COVID-19 was the second leading cause or virtually tied for second: Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Texas. COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in 40 states. In 4 states COVID-19 was lower than the third leading cause: Alaska, Hawaii, Maine, and Vermont.

Editorial Note: Last week on KTAR’s Broomhead Show, Governor Ducey again made the claim that “Arizona has done as well as anybody at saving lives and livelihoods during the pandemic.” A patently false statement given the poor results as documented in our and many other reports.

He even took a veiled swipe at those of us that have been urging him to make better decisions saying that “… there will always be people throwing stones from the cheap seats”.