[some-are-better]

Maybe the word "lockdown" means something different to you. But in my state (IL), we never had a "lockdown" in any sense of that word.

In retrospect, in particular (to use an example from another area of the USA), the state of NY and NYC did not take COVID-19 seriously. Even while supposedly concerned about the spread of COVID-19, they were returning known-infected people to old folk homes. This was not a lockdown action...

The reasons that the USA response to COVID-19 was X and not Y are a lot more complex than the simple statement "because the administration is incompetent". The full history of how well the USA did (including internal geographic areas vs. others) vs. the rest of the world is still to be written.