South Dakota’s covid-19 numbers have been terrible, but the governor says that’s the wrong metric

— South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R), in an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Feb. 2

Noem has attracted significant attention for these remarks, made after she was questioned about a tough New York Times “opinion video” that, in the words of the Times, aimed to “unpack her deadly playbook for how to handle a pandemic all wrong while preserving a reputation for being credible and competent.”

The main point of contention is Noem’s statement that South Dakota “got through it better than virtually any other state.” As the Times video and our colleague Philip Bump recounted, the coronavirus numbers for South Dakota are pretty terrible.

“South Dakota ended 2020 with the second-highest number of population-adjusted coronavirus infections in the country,” Bump wrote. “One out of every 9 residents had contracted the virus, and 1 out of every 600 had died of it.” (By February, the numbers showed that 1 out of 8 residents had gotten the virus and 1 of 500 residents had died of it.)

In particular, South Dakota (along with North Dakota) surged near the top of the list after the transmission of the virus and preventive measures were better understood. In August, Noem encouraged attendance to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, where a gathering of nearly 500,000 people is believed to have led to a surge of infections across the Upper Midwest.

So this made us curious — what type of metrics is Noem using to make her claim? It turns out, it is not really about health outcomes. As a reader service, here’s what she is talking about.

Ian Fury, the governor’s communications director, first directed us to Noem’s annual budget message, delivered in December. “The state hasn’t issued lockdowns or mandates,” Noem said. “We haven’t shut down businesses or closed churches. In fact, our state has never even defined what an ‘essential business’ is. That, quite simply, is not the government’s role.”

Instead, she argued, “even amid a pandemic, public policy ought to be holistic. Daily needs must still be met. People need to eat and keep a roof over their heads. And they still need purpose. That means policymakers cannot have tunnel vision. They must balance public health concerns with people’s mental and emotional needs, their economic livelihoods and social connections, and liberty, among many other important factors.”

In particular, Noem bragged that the state’s finances were solid, unlike other states that had…