Yes - I was agreeing with you. It has nothing to do with "leadership." In fact, without the strong leadership NY had, things would be even worse.
And yes, it's happening all over. In California, people are abandoning their hilltop houses (surrounded by flammable brush) if they can.
Anyone who lives in a single family dwelling with just 1-2 other people is in way better shape than people who have to live in high rises, especially those with long shared hallways, crowded elevators and sometimes, shared ventilation/sewer drains. And the more rural the place, the easier to isolate, for sure. Amazon delivers everywhere apparently (saw a truck in the middle of what used to be nowhere on a drive two days ago).
Reshaping of our human environment (with population flowing toward coastlines where it's cooler) has been predicted since the 60's and it's actually culminating in over-building in cities and urbanites flooding the more suburban/rural areas. Perhaps it will help the local economies in places that are economically depressed. That would be nice.
Louisiana has the most CoVid cases per capita.
Florida is in second place - and yet, apparently, people are still moving there.
Mississippi is in third place.
All three of these places are in the so-called "Southern trough" of real estate. It's very hard to move out once you move in (because property values are lower and people are unable to scrape together enough to move).
IOW, those three states have now managed to pass New York and New Jersey in terms of per capita cases.
And Florida...is leading the nation in terms of active cases, which is a key indicator if you're thinking of moving or traveling.
California is in second place but has nearly twice as many people as Florida, with
Georgia in third place, despite having only one-quarter the population of California and one-half the population of Florida.
And
Arizona has an honorable mention as it is fourth place in both active cases and total cases. Arizona is projected to have more than 5000 additional CoVid deaths between now and New Year's Day.
Unfortunately, California is projected to have an
additional 30,000 deaths by New Year's. Sheer size of cities is one feature, poorer people will continue to be the main demographic. Younger people are more and more represented in the new case numbers.
COVID-19 deaths among young and working age Latinos skyrocket in California, study finds
United States Coronavirus: 6,874,596 Cases and 202,213 Deaths - Worldometer
If Californians actually started wearing their masks when outside their own households (and social distancing), we could bring those deaths down to 20,000, maybe fewer.
