I've been wondering a lot about that as well. It seems to me it may be a combination of factors.
1) New York was the area hardest it, it got hit initially, it has incredibly high concentration of people, and since it got hit early we had the least amount of information about the virus. Because of the small geographic area, high population density, and quick spike of infections you get a subset of hospitals strained for resources in that area, but not the whole nation. Similar to pulling a hose and it gets caught on something which makes it harder to pull, it isn't there isn't enough slack in the hose, it is that there isn't enough slack in the hose at one spot.
2) There has been a heavy politicization of the whole 'Rona situation and so different factions are either trying to downplay it, or exacerbate it to try and score political points.
3) Fear gets more clicks than, sunny day stories.
4) Pushing an over the top message of worry may convince people to be more cautious who otherwise wouldn't be. Like if you want a 3% raise, you don't go in and ask your boss for a 3% raise, ask him for 5% or 7% that way he can negotiate you down to a 3% and still feel like he won, and kept you for less than you wanted and you still get what you wanted.
5)There is an alternative possiblity. There is a grand conspiracy by either, the deep state, the Illuminati, the elite, the superwealthy, secret neo-Nazis, the Communists, the bicoastal liberal elite, the CIA, to kill people by the millions using COVID-19 and it turns out the conspiracy is really bad at it.
EDIT:
I also want to make clear I don't want to downplay the situation of various healthcare workers who have been heroically making sacrifice. I believe many of them are honestly expressing their opinion and are worried about PPE or other issues, and may have experienced it; however there are probably hundreds of thousands of people involved in the New York healthcare system, if only 1% of 100,000 people feel overwhelmed at some point and post a video, or send a tweet about it that is 1,000 stories, but may not represent a consensus view.
1) New York was the area hardest it, it got hit initially, it has incredibly high concentration of people, and since it got hit early we had the least amount of information about the virus. Because of the small geographic area, high population density, and quick spike of infections you get a subset of hospitals strained for resources in that area, but not the whole nation. Similar to pulling a hose and it gets caught on something which makes it harder to pull, it isn't there isn't enough slack in the hose, it is that there isn't enough slack in the hose at one spot.
2) There has been a heavy politicization of the whole 'Rona situation and so different factions are either trying to downplay it, or exacerbate it to try and score political points.
3) Fear gets more clicks than, sunny day stories.
4) Pushing an over the top message of worry may convince people to be more cautious who otherwise wouldn't be. Like if you want a 3% raise, you don't go in and ask your boss for a 3% raise, ask him for 5% or 7% that way he can negotiate you down to a 3% and still feel like he won, and kept you for less than you wanted and you still get what you wanted.
5)There is an alternative possiblity. There is a grand conspiracy by either, the deep state, the Illuminati, the elite, the superwealthy, secret neo-Nazis, the Communists, the bicoastal liberal elite, the CIA, to kill people by the millions using COVID-19 and it turns out the conspiracy is really bad at it.
EDIT:
I also want to make clear I don't want to downplay the situation of various healthcare workers who have been heroically making sacrifice. I believe many of them are honestly expressing their opinion and are worried about PPE or other issues, and may have experienced it; however there are probably hundreds of thousands of people involved in the New York healthcare system, if only 1% of 100,000 people feel overwhelmed at some point and post a video, or send a tweet about it that is 1,000 stories, but may not represent a consensus view.