30 days ago many HN posters were saying this. I guess they were all idiots too.
They don't say it much any more, though... why get downvoted? The fact that this has already spread through the US will become self-evident soon enough. ("The peak is coming in CA any day now! Just wait...")
That article is comparing NY to CA with the expectation that they should be more similar.
CA is a very car-centric state, the public transportation situation is a joke. I'd expect this alone to tamp down the spread relative to NY, considering the density of NYC and how ubiquitous public transportation is there.
>He does not advocate lifting social distancing rules
I believe the "idiots" referred to above are the people who blindly assumed without evidence the experimental hypothesis of this study simply as an excuse to avoid social distancing and self isolation.