Americans are seeing the coronavirus pandemic play out in two parts, as states that bore the brunt of cases in the early months of the pandemic have mostly contained the spread, while a new wave of infections is now threatening much of the rest of the country.
At the start of April, New York and New Jersey accounted for fully half of all cases nationwide. Those two states plus five others saw a combined rate of confirmed infections that was nearly eight times that of the rest of the country. But mitigation efforts that brought…
