The part you miss and CONSTANTLY refuse to address is the following.
MS and UT have about the same cases. MS is about the highest deaths. UT about the lowest.
CA has similar case loads to a variety of other states. Some have far higher deaths, some are about even, some are much lower.
Etc.
You just look at deaths and go...1+1=states should have locked down more. IE you can do math fine. You seem to not look at and try to analyze data as to why.
MS has the highest obesity in the nation and that generally is in a certain population that is already rather unhealthy. UT doesn't have that issue.
AZ has like CA cases similar to a variety of other states who all have very different deaths. AZ is a retirement state with a large Indian population.
NM a state who followed CA in many aspects and was even stricter in some has case rates similar to CA but far higher deaths. NM also has a large Indian population.
You just look at deaths and say yep it is gov intervention or lack of it that is why deaths are at a certain level. You go silent (as in never once have spoken) on the fact that many states have similar case loads but very different deaths. That should tell you that it is something else at play. Percentage of older people in a state, overall health in a state (or within certain groups), Indian populations, etc. The reason you go silent is because you CANNOT then rely on well they didn't mask, or they didn't social distance.
This is the same thing that has happened in other countries. Serbia has less than half the deaths of Belgium with around the same cases, etc. As you look around you see plenty of countries with similar cases but rather different deaths per million.
As a math guy you like 1+2 = gov solutions work!
You fail to look at the data and say well it appears something (many) seem to drive what is going on.
It is kind of like your mask thing. Despite countries with high compliance vs those with less, we see the waves all hit the countries at roughly the same time and act in similar manners. You cling to masks saying they work. Real world data shows the virus spreads in a similar manner around the world and the waves all happen at roughly the same time.
This also gets back to your fundamental problem in interpreting data. You constant solution(s) are blanket in nature. Long ago we learned who is actually at risk. Your preferred solutions target everyone. You yourself are a perfect example of knowing math and failing to look at data. You are healthy and young and vaxxed and yet you still walk around with a mask. It appears you also do this outside just walking around. You claim surgical masks do the trick. And yet wear n95s. In other words you have not looked at the data and realized you have little to no risk. Your actions show a person who believes you are at a lot higher level of risk.
In other words a lack of understanding the data available.
Which is the same you seem to do with state/country data.