>I think that the reason for the difference is that the people in power in Florida and the people in power in NY took almost exactly opposite courses of action based on the data available. Florida took a very targeted approach and never had the draconian measures that NY took.

The numbers were a lot different:
At the peak in mid-April
* NY had 10,700 new cases and 1,000 deaths daily, whereas
* FL had 1,400 new cases and 60 deaths daily
Yesterday,
* NY recorded 1,361 new cases and 81 deaths
* FL recorded 617 new cases and 70 deaths
Let's say NY adopted the same measures as FL, and that NY would have been able to reduce the numbers by the same factor (i.e. 617/1400 and 70/60), NY would be today at 4,700 new cases and 1,000 deaths daily
Also, you can see from the graphs that the there has been no decrease in numbers for FL in the last few weeks.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/new-york-coronavirus-cases.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/florida-coronavirus-cases.html

>From https://www.statista.com/statistics/1105061/coronavirus-deaths-by-region-in-italy/
>"After entering Italy, coronavirus (COVID-19) has been spreading fast. An analysis of the individuals who died after contracting the virus revealed that the vast majority of deaths occurred among the elderly. Of the 31 thousand coronavirus deaths subject of this study, more than 80 percent were patients aged 70 years and older."

These relevant numbers are very recent. This unfortunate amount of data was not available back then, when decisions had to be made.
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