RTFA

      It's an old, old Internet acronym, slightly updated.  Mr. Bowdler tells me the original version was short for "Read The Frikkin' Manual," but you know how he is.

      In my version, the last word is "Article," and therein hangs a tale.

      It's the 2020s and we all tend to leap without looking.  React!  Clickbait rules the Web and listicles are easy.  So when a local blogger stumbled across an item on a local TV station's website* citing a (pre-Omicron) study ranking Indiana as the state "least safe during COVID-19," he was incensed.  What an outrage!  Clearly, this was a slanted study intended to make Red states look bad and puff up Blue states!

      But the study, put together from publicly-available data as of about mid-December for all fifty states plus the District of Columbia, does nothing of the sort.  In fact, it ranks deep-Red Florida in fifth place for safety and the difference between averages for "Red" and "Blue" states is barely enough to be statistically significant.

      The article reporting the study has cute graphics, but the numbers don't establish much of a trend past "don't get sick," and they're not useful for making travel plans unless you've got tickets on a time machine.

      If you are looking for something with a bit more factual guidance, this chart comparing death rates of vaccinated and unvaccinated people in the U.S. is a clear beacon.
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* Indianapolis has five -- or four and a half, at least -- TV News departments and a mortally-ill newspaper fighting over your eyeballs, all jumping up and down, shouting "Lookit me!  Lookit me!" with varying degrees of decorum or desperation.