Nobody can back up any of these claims right now, it’s all belief and speculation. If someone says they have analyzed the outbreaks in Seattle and NYC and can control for all the differences between them, they’re delusional.
As I've said before, I strongly suspect that when this is all over, there will be a heck of a lot of deviation in results that don't neatly align with a "stupid government" vs. "enlightened government" dichotomy. Although people will certainly try.
The Northeast US is, at least in parts, some of the worst in the world that is known about and, other than being pretty dense, it really doesn't map to especially poor government response by reasonable definitions. Perfect hindsight doesn't count.
