The data on elderly populations is taken from an article that you originally shared [1]. Perhaps you did not read it, or do not believe your own data, but it clearly states that Florida, Texas and California have the largest elderly populations in the US. It also clearly states that the median age in Texas and % of the population over 65 are lower than in California.

The data on covid death rates (per 100,000 people) is publicly available [2]. Even in a state with a younger population (Texas), overall death rates are still higher than in California.

I don't need to distort the truth because it is obvious to anyone with common sense.

But let's look at it another way just for fun. 40,689 Floridians over age 65 have died of COVID [3]. If Florida had the same % of over 65 residents as California does (14.3%), we would expect to see 28,245 >age 65 deaths in Florida. This would give Florida an overall COVID death rate of 201 deaths per 100,000 people. This is still higher than the actual overall death rate in California (179 deaths per 100,00 people). And in this hypothetical exercise, we are likely still undercounting deaths in Florida.

My point is that you can't only cite age as a confounder when you compare Florida and California. You have to take into account different policies, and there is no way to argue that Florida's policy has saved lives.

[1] https://www.prb.org/resources/which-us-states-are-the-oldest... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covi... [3] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm#Se...