It LOOKS terrifying, but there are two important facts to remember:
1. The US lags FAR behind in testing. Many of the cases that should have been detected weeks ago are just now getting results. Likely US cases were beginning to ramp up 1-3 days before italy, but nobody was testing.
2. While the absolute number of cases is higher and growing fast, the US has a population of 330 million, compared to 60 million for italy, and is a far larger country with more medical resources. Our total case number is going to end up higher then italy, significantly so if the virus turns out to be more aggressive, but per capita our confirmed cases is still far lower. To match per capita we would have to have 294,0250 confirmed cases today. The graph does not take per capita into account, so any country with a significantly higher population then italy will look way worse even if per capita cases are lower.
Hyperdense cities like New York are disaster zones just waiting to happen. Honestly surprised it hasnt been hit harder by previous diseases.
Also why I would never live in such a location.