Right. And a lot of the middle of the country 'flyover states', are incredibly rural and already enact social distancing. They are currently not as affected. People think the United States is one homogenous entity, and that if New York City is endangered, the entire country is. Nothing can be further from the truth.
New York City is 1400 miles from Oklahoma City. To put that in perspective, if a simultaneous lockdown of the entire United States is warranted based on an outbreak in New York City, then a lockdown of Mo i Rana Norway is warranted due to the spread in Lombardy. Or, being 3800 miles away, locking down Nome, AK because of New York, is like locking down Darwin Australia in December due to the outbreak in Wuhan.
In other words, the distances make these suggestions absolutely ridiculous.
In reality, the virus takes time to spread over land, and the US has a lot of empty land. Lockdowns will need to happen in the interior to flatten the curve, but only after the virus starts to manifest there. The goal with lockdown is to not overwhelm the healthcare system while simultaneously insuring enough people get it to ensure herd immunity.
Interior states should encourage people to prepare and suggest those especially at risk to limit interactions. For the most part they are. As they become more affected, they should institute a lockdown at the latest possible moment they can to avoid an overwhelmed healthcare system. In the meantime, they should take advantage of their working economy to prepare.
The rest of the country benefits from the continued industry of the middle states while they are in lockdown. When it comes time for us to open back up, and them to start lockdown, we should return the favor, by maintaining some semblance of our economy
