Actually, let's do New York, New Jersey, etc: Most of those deaths are the results of infections BEFORE Lockdowns and mitigation. They are the result of infection spread in February and March, when we were oblivious.
Let's look at deaths since June 1, 2020.. when states like New York were taking significant mitigation measures, and states like Florida were not:
Florida and New York have similar populations... since June 1, 2020:
Florida has had 27,000 deaths
New York has had 16,000 deaths.
So, since the effect of mitigation measures have kicked in... New York has had SIGNIFICANTLY less death than Florida.
Let's do Georgia and Michigan -- Michigan also had a big pre-mitigation hit.
So since June 1, 2020:
Michigan 10,000 deaths
Georgia: 15,000 deaths
Mass vs AZ, since June 1, 2020:
Mass: 9,000 deaths
AZ: 14,000 deaths
Hmmm, I'm seeing a pattern. Once mitigation measures kicked in... states that took more serious mitigation measures did FAR better than states that didn't.