COVID-19 Damage Assessment: Which States Have Suffered Most?

The COVID-19 pandemic took a dramatic toll on the health of Americans, both directly and indirectly. The magnitude of that toll, however, varied significantly by state, according to findings published in the Commonwealth Fund 2022 Scorecard on State Health System Performance, an annual evaluation of how well the health care system overall is working in each state.

This year, Scorecard researchers pursued a new area of inquiry: How well has each state responded to and managed the COVID-19 pandemic?

The following slide show summarizes the Scorecard findings on 7 measures in key areas of performance related to pandemic response, including vaccination, hospital and intensive care unit (ICU) capacity/health system stress, and excess mortality through March 31, 2022.