[halfmatthalfcat]

Lockdowns are only effective if they are much closer to "all or nothing" than "regions can pick and choose".

That's the entire reason why the Tri-State area worked together to create and follow each other's lockdown policies.

If you have a piecemeal approach, people will flee the lockdown and bring the virus to wherever they go to continue the cycle. The lockdown (and masks) only work if you have high levels of coordination and compliance. That's why having a national policy is much more effective than a regional or state-level policy. That's also why China was much more effective (from the outside, if you believe anything about their numbers) than the West was.