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.
Idiots popping up everywhere, it seems...