that mandates hurt the economy. I never said they were the sole reason, as I've stated before businesses would have initially suffered at the beginning of the pandemic. You have no proof that businesses wouldn't have operated normally without the mandates, or that the same amount of people would have stayed home if not forced to do so. The article you posted definitely doesn't prove the mandates saved the economy.
Also, this article came out a week after the one you posted:
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/latest-economic-data-show-red-states-crushing-blue-states-and-heres-why
The fact is the gov't has made the pandemic worse by foolish mandates and spending.