[user_50123890]

Imagine it's February 2020, multiple european countries decided to start softly locking down due to the scary news from Asia, even though they have barely any cases. Fast forward a week.

Your argument would basically be saying at that point "China has much more cases even though they have stricter restrictions, which means restrictions don't work!"

[bb2018]

That is not at all my argument. I am saying the posted article paints a picture of Seattle and New York City being equally susceptible to a huge explosion of cases. The differences between the two cities (in terms of density, public transit, tourists, etc) is about as significant as between a city like Boston and a city like Manchester, New Hampshire.