The thing missed is that the spread from China was based on travel from Wuhan primarily. NYC infections came from Iran and Italy.

Saying that New York's approach wasn't science based is absurd. The most notable screwup was the delay in school closures due to the dependence that many have on getting breakfast and lunch at school. IMO, at the time I don't think awareness that asymptomatic "super spreaders" may exist was known. (Assuming that is true, much of the data known to CDC is now classified so it's difficult to really know!)