Two Coasts. One Virus. How New York Suffered Nearly 10 Times the Number of Deaths as California.

By March 14, London Breed, the mayor of San Francisco, had seen enough. For weeks, she and her health officials had looked at data showing the evolving threat of COVID-19. In response, she’d issued a series of orders limiting the size of public gatherings, each one feeling more arbitrary than the last. She’d been persuaded that her city’s considerable and highly regarded health care system might be insufficient for the looming onslaught of infection and death.

“We need to shut this shit down,” Breed remembered thinking.

Three days later in...