Shelter in Place is basically just the Bay Area, right? And a lot of people still seem to be leaving the home for work there; notoriously, people are still making Teslas!

Also, California is mostly fairly urbanised and well-off. If Germany was the only place in Europe where people were being discouraged from leaving the home, this would be less of a concern. This is really targeting places, especially rural places, with poor infrastructure.

I am in Los Angeles, and we have been told to stay home except for absolutely necessary trips to grocery stores or doctors.

Also, there are very large parts of California that are rural.

> Census 2000 found California’s rural population totaled 1,876,753 persons

That's about 5%, which is pretty low.

It'd probably be the 6th largest in the eu. Smaller than Italy, France and Spain which all have lockdowns.