Arizona's COVID-19 Response Ranks 47th In Nation: UC Berkeley

PHOENIX, AZ — The state of Arizona ranks 47th in the U.S. for its pandemic response, in large part due to the significant racial and ethnic disparities in rate of infection, hospitalization and deaths, according to UC-Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute.

The study broke down the performance of all 50 states and 172 countries based on the three aforementioned categories.

It found that the states with the best pandemic responses fared better across those categories than those that didn't, with Arizona slotting in ahead of the likes of Mississippi, Iowa and South Dakota.

The institute's press release said the three categories provide the most objective breakdown in regard to the effectiveness of local health departments in responding to the pandemic.

"The most effective states appeared to be those that carried out strong public health measures grounded in science," Elsadig Elsheikh, co-author of the 2020 Inclusiveness Index, an annual report published by the Othering & Belonging Institute, said in the release.

The institute's report found that states that were more aggressive in putting mask mandates and social distancing orders fared better than those that did not.

The aim of these metrics is to measure how governments protect and accommodate the needs of marginalized populations, the release said.

“The Covid-19 pandemic produced stark disparities by race, age and other demographics that reminded us of the vulnerability of certain marginalized communities as well as inequalities in health care access and policy. Our Covid Index and analysis confronts this reality,” co-author Stephen Menendian said in the release.

The top-three states in the institute's study were Vermont, Alaska and Maine.

Worldwide, the U.S. ranked 161st out of 172 countries, while the United Arab Emirates, Denmark and Iceland ranked atop the national rankings.