It's useful to split the US into two pieces - NYC/NJ/CT/MA and the rest of the country. Death rates are roughly similar within those two groups yet very differ

It's useful to split the US into two pieces - NYC/NJ/CT/MA and the rest of the country. Death rates are roughly similar within those two groups yet very different between those two groups. (The "hotspots" outside the NYC group seem to be largely driven by travel from NYC.)