I think there are a bunch of different things that influence cases. You would think masks would help, and that greater densities of people would make the virus spread faster. But honestly Lis Angeles isn't any more dense than Denver, just bigger. Maybe there are more cultural differences at play? I actually haven't heard much about why California is spiking, which is surprising because I think they're still "number one". I hear from my work contacts in San Francisco that there really isn't much of a problem in that city, it's all location dependent. In their case, they say Oakland is where the biggest numbers are, IIRC. Which again makes me think there are some cultural issues at play, and that could include larger numbers and densities of "essential workers" in those areas, compared to the elites in San Francisco. And Denver