The issue here is that (in the US), we've ended up with the worst of all the worlds. A case spike in NYC on the scale of Italy's, but without the same level of

The issue here is that (in the US), we've ended up with the worst of all the worlds. A case spike in NYC on the scale of Italy's, but without the same level of lockdown, and without similar widespread efforts, so instead of being down to 1 case per 100K people per day, we're 10x higher and dropping more slowly. Combine that with a refusal to do (or for the government to enforce) simple, easy things that reduce spread even in otherwise relatively normal life (masks), and you get a situation that will require a longer, more painful response than if we did the more invasive stuff early on. > there's quite a difference in Italy for example from the "hundreds new cases a day" in march, with a unknown size pool of undetected cases, and "hundred new cases a day" but everyone else is fine and contact tracing will find the rest. I think you're also underestimating the difference a bit. It went from 5,000 new cases per day to ~100 per day, although there's since been an uptick to around 1000 cases per day. But the level of containment in those nations is such that its generally safe to have offices open. Less so in most of the US.