Northern states that were hard hit and took their response very seriously are doing about as well as the European countries that got hit hard. NY, NJ, CT, MA, etc. have all seen positive rates decline and reach a low enough level to be able to control with testing, tracing and isolation.
The southern states, WTF. The virus came to these states very late compared to NY, WA, CA, etc. These states were able to lock down just as community spread started and beat back any explosive outbreaks. But then the decision was made to ignore the recommendations to wait for 14 days of negative positive case growth before reopening. Instead, the southern states looked at hospital capacity and whether positive test rates were stable. So, states like TX, AZ, FL, GA, AL, etc. basically traded 4-6 weeks of tepid economic activity during reopening for an outbreak that is currently out of control and filling up ICUs. The southern states could have absolutely crushed the virus and had positive cases down in the single digits had they just finished the job. But the state houses in the red states all buckled to the jet ski dealers and bar owners who came crying about losing money. Now, they are shut down again and may never reopen because the outbreak is nowhere close to being under control.
I do agree that Europe and Asia are not out of the woods. This fall and winter are going to be a huge challenge. But when you are a country of 80 million like Germany and you come into fall with 200-400 positives a day, you have a good shot at containing a further mass outbreak versus a country of 325 million with 20-40,000 positives a day.