Correct as to 40th out of 50 states in terms of deaths per million. Deaths are a much better measure of the severity of the plague than cases. People do have multiple tests; one the quick one and one that takes 5-7 days. Two positives probably are counted as two cases.
California has almost as many test taken as population, 32 million vs 39 million. So the case frequency is very high, but the case mortality rate is only .014.
New York has a lower case rate but much higher death rate at nearly 2000 deaths per million population. Its case mortality is .039.
Which state has had the bigger problem and needs the most severe measures?
Of course it is not a simple problem because the above numbers are cumulative and the current dynamics are more important.
I think NY proves that long term lock downs don’t have much effect, The virus is out there and will kill its victims eventually until the vaccines take hold. Lots of businesses will have died for no reason.
All stats need to consider the timing. NY mortality mostly occurred when there wasn’t much testing being done, due to poor availability of tests.
IMHO only use post-September data to do interstate comparisons of positive tests.
Ideally also use only overall mortality, not medical reports of Covid mortality. Granted this can be hard to get hold of for states, and its lagged substantially.