Okay, but what about other states which had it then such as CA?
There are a number of differences between CA and NY/NJ, the most important being that they had different strains of the virus. The strain that hit California is thought to be less fatal. CA also closed everything very early and had much less spread than NY/NJ, so their hospitals never saw the same pressure. Another difference, and IMO a very big one, is weather. If the theory about the correlation of weather and indoor spread is correct, then the circumstances on the ground in CA are not remotely comparable to NY/NJ in March and April, and therefore the reactions cannot be compared.
Once again: NY screwed up. NJ screwed up. No debate. But you will have a hard time making a fair comparison of situations with a multitude of differing variables.