I doubt those numbers are any good. Remember, between hysteria and financial incentives, the death reporting came down to “if you cough at any point and then die in the next two weeks from any cause, it was Covid,” so of course we’re seeing death rates that are nothing more than a function of the population (and thus regular death rate) for a state. More honest numbers would probably still be based on size of vulnerable population, yes, but they would likely also put Cuomo out of position due to his policy of shipping Covid patients to nursing homes and thereby targeting that vulnerable population.
On a side note, it would also work the other way—one might suggest that if Florida is ranked third for death and third for population despite being ranked second in terms of percentage of population that is elderly and second in absolute number of elderly residents, that shows they did something right.
I doubt those numbers are any good. Remember, between hysteria and financial incentives, the death reporting came down to “if you cough at any point and then die in the next two weeks from any cause, it was Covid,” so of course we’re seeing death rates that are nothing more than a function of the population (and thus regular death rate) for a state. More honest numbers would probably still be based on size of vulnerable population, yes, but they would likely also put Cuomo out of position due to his policy of shipping Covid patients to nursing homes and thereby targeting that vulnerable population.
On a side note, it would also work the other way—one might suggest that if Florida is ranked third for death and third for population despite being ranked second in terms of percentage of population that is elderly and second in absolute number of elderly residents, that shows they did something right.