Updated Report Card For The Pandemic

It is 2021 now, and we at the TSAP think it is time to issue updated grades for each country on how they handled the pandemic.  These will be updated further over time.  Grades are based on a mixture of per-capita COVID death rates, overall excess deaths, economic damage, and policy measures.  All grades are on a curve, normalized with the European average set at C.  Here is the current list:

Taiwan:  A+ (very best in the world)
Hong Kong:  A
Iceland:  A
Norway:  A
Finland: A

Nicaragua:  A

South Korea:  A
Japan:  A-
New Zealand:  A-

Uruguay:  B+

Denmark:  B+
Germany:  B+

Australia:  B+

Austria:  B
Canada:  B

Belarus:  B

Russian Federation: B
Singapore:  B-

Slovakia:  B-

Portugal:  C+

Austria:  C+
Switzerland:  C
Netherlands:  C
Sweden: C

France:  C
USA: C- (overall, varies by state)

Brazil:  C-

Argentina:  D (don't cry for us now!)

Czechia:  D-

Peru:  F (formerly worst in the world)

Slovenia: F
Italy:  F
Spain: F
UK:  F (two lockdowns is dumb, but three?)
Belgium:  F (worst significant country in the world, twice!)

China:  F (though they really deserve a Z, for infecting the whole world!)

Countries that avoided a full lockdown and still got good results automatically get higher grades than those who achieved the same results with a full lockdown.  And further demerit points are deducted for unusually stringent and/or long-lasting restrictions compared to the world average.

(Entries in green are countries that never forcibly shut down in any meaningful way, while those in orange did so only very briefly, very locally, and/or used a very light touch overall.)

For US states, a partial list of states' grades:

Vermont:  A
Wyoming:  A
Hawaii:  A

Washington State:  A

Utah:  A

Oregon:  A

Iowa:  A-
Arkansas:  B

North Carolina:  B

California:  C
Florida: C
Georgia:  C
South Carolina:  C
Texas: C
Maryland:  C
Virginia:  C
Wisconsin:  C

DC:  C-

Arizona:  C-

South Dakota:  D+

North Dakota:  D+

Illinois: D
Michigan:  D

Louisiana:  D

Pennsylvania:  D

Connecticut:  D

Rhode Island:  D-

Massachusetts:  D-

New York:  F (second worst in the world)
New Jersey:  F (worst in the world)

Interestingly, non-lockdown states generally outperform most non-lockdown states.  Note how Florida and California both ended up about average despite polar opposite approaches to their epidemics. 

  

That's why you don't call the winner at halftime. 

All of these grades are of course subject to change in the coming weeks and months.  But at this point, they probably won't change very much.