[smolder]

This vague "America is special so can't be compared" line of argument often gets used to explain away things we compare badly on: residential internet, public education, health care, the coronavirus response... I'm sure I'll think of others, later. Point is, it's a rhetorical thing that distracts from the problems rather than explaining them.

[TearsInTheRain]

>This vague "America is special

Uh he gave pretty clear reasons why the US is different. the population density of populations hubs like New York, and the level of international economic activity are very concrete reasons why the US would be significantly more affected than some locales

[ivalm]

There is nothing concrete in what he said. US cities don’t even make the list of top50 most dense cities. Chinese and Japanese cities where coronavirus was contained are on the list:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/07/11/the-50-...

Beyond that, US cities are usually not dense at all due to people living in single family homes rather than apartments.