I live in MA (Boston suburb) and have for a decade. I don't have all the answers but a few things to note on this topic.. 1. The lockdown was probably not actu

I live in MA (Boston suburb) and have for a decade. I don't have all the answers but a few things to note on this topic.. 1. The lockdown was probably not actually harsh enough. I got a waiver from it, as did almost everyone I worked with, to continue coming into work. The paper said we were "critical to national infrastructure" but we work in long-term research which could easily be pushed back by weeks without anyone knowing or caring. I don't know how typical this was or how many people were excluded. 2. You could always travel to and from other states pretty freely via car. The only serious attempt I ever saw against this was at the New York Connecticut border they were checking for certain license plates (Florida maybe? they didn't care about my MA plates) one time. Even then, you could apparently get off the highway and avoid this because a friend of mine did. 3. Mask rules were/are looser in NH where everyone goes on weekends if traffic is any indication. 4. In recent months I saw a lot of people mushed together dining outside in the Italian district. We can debate how much this matters since it's outdoors but I don't think they were doing that in Australia. Separation looks more serious based on articles I've seen: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-unveils-16-covid-safe-outdoor-dining-precincts-20201001-p560z2.html https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-unveil... I don't have a lot of hard stats to put in here, but it wasn't Australia in MA and degree of enforcement certainly makes a difference if you're going to have rules.