Red states handled COVID-19 better than blue states, a new report says.

Research shows that lockdowns hurt Americans more than they actually helped.

According to the New York Post, “the bottom 10 on the study’s ‘report card’ were dominated by states that had the most severe pandemic lockdowns and were among the last to finally reopen schools.”

Blue states “had high age-adjusted death rates, they had high unemployment and significant GDP losses, and they kept their schools shut down much longer than almost all other states,” the study, by published by the Committee To Unleash Prosperity said.

Nine out of the top ten Covid responses were from states run by Republicans.

Fox News: "Blue states getting a failing grade when it came to their response on the COVID pandemic." pic.twitter.com/Az5TjIqEn5

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 12, 2022

The topic was discussed on Fox and Friends, where business owners Sal Stile, Buddy Foy Jr., and Aaron Bergh discussed the pandemic’s impact on their businesses and their lives.

Stile, a New Yorker, said that the report doesn’t surprise him at all.

“These lockdowns were really devastating for long island and New York City. I think a lot of restaurants or small businesses are still recuperating. I remember it was a ghost town in manhattan during the lockdown,” he said, saying that he believes children haven’t gotten the education that those in red states have.

“It was really a setback for New York City in general, and, guess what, that’s why you see such an exodus of most businesses and executives and a good part of the financial community leaving New York and going to Florida.”

Foy, who owns restaurants in Florida and New York, said that Florida maintained the freedoms guaranteed by living in the United States, while New York became a lockdown “nightmare.”

“We didn’t own a restaurant in Florida until the pandemic,” he said, saying that he opened once Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared the state open for business.

“I had a conversation with my wife and we took a major risk and went to Florida,” he said.

Bergh said that he was unsure why states like California and New York kept so many restrictions in place despite evidence that lockdowns were harmful not just for the economy, but for people’s lives.

“It’s obvious that it was full steam ahead with failed policies. The state legislator is actually moving forward with a bill to actually require small businesses to require their employees to get the vaccine. They aren’t repealing the gas tax, and they’re just continuing with failed policies that got us where we’re at.”

Bergh said that he still felt like he was behind the 8-ball, saying that he was still feeling the pain of lockdowns.