Compare, for example, Santa Clara County in California, home to Silicon Valley, and Miami-Dade County in Florida…

Santa Clara County, for example, imposed social-distancing restrictions starting on Feb. 10. A shelter-in-place order was implemented on March 17. By contrast, Miami-Dade County waited until March 12 before it issued a state of emergency — 32 days after Santa Clara announced its. The result was that while both communities saw cases drop, Miami-Dade had more people get sick.

“The early and aggressive social distancing orders for Santa Clara were able to slow the spread of the disease and reduce illness throughout the county,’’ the Kinsa researchers conclude in a report on their website. The slower pace of Miami-Dade may have allowed the virus to saturate more of the community.