Also I think you have to look at the clusters (in a state) as independent threads growing in parallel. It makes more sense to compare individual state to European countries of similar population.
Very true. The most basic modeling of by country is not helpful, it'd be far better to show it by city, metro area, etc. And as you said each area has their own start date.
Shoot in the US most metro areas have their own quarantine date too.
Shoot in the US most metro areas have their own quarantine date too.