It is true that New York State has 9 out of 10 most densely populated cities in the US.
New York had one of the most stringent lock downs and mask requirements. Yet it was #1 in death rates.
So, if it is density, can one then say regardless of masks and crowd control, it has no effect of death rates?
Or it would have been even worse without masks and crowd control. Which it most certainly would have been.
I think you don't really fully comprehend what exponential growth means.
I'm sure you've heard for the reproductive factor - although I don't know if there's a proper english term for it.
Basicly, it's a unit that reflects how infectious a disease is in population dynamics.
It reflects how many people are infected by a single infected person.
If that number is smaller then 1, the epidemic loses ground.
If that number is bigger then 1, it knows exponential growth.
Imagine an unconstrainted society where every infected person infects 4 others per day and start with only 1 infection.
You'll have 4 on day 2.
16 on day 3.
64 on day 4
256 on day 5
1024 on day 6
4096 on day 7
16.384 on day 8
65.536 on day 9
262.144 on day 10.
That's a quarter million people in just 10 days.
Now imagine that on day 4, a lockdown goes into effect. This by itself already drastically diminishes the amount of social contacts and let's say it halves the reproduction number to just 2.
Let's say that next to the lockdown, additional measures are in effect like for example crowd control by saying max 1 person allowed in a room for every 10 m², keeping social distance and wearing masks. That might further reduce the number to say, 1.2
Now let's re-run the simulation with that new number.
Now there are only (64*1.2 = ) 76.8 cases on day 5, instead of 256.
92,16 on day 6
110,59 on day 7
132,71 on day 8
159,25 on day 9
191,1 on day 10
See how that works?
With measures and crowd control, you end up with 191 cases on day 10.
Without them, you end up with a quarter million instead.
This is off course purely theoretical and the real world is more complex off course.... This model for example doesn't keep into account that by day 8 "the neighbourhood" will be infected and people from that hood will likely no longer infect 4 others unless they leave the hood...
But you get the idea.
And that idea is: slowing down exponential growth, has very real effects over time.