It is sobering to look at the obituaries in rural areas

[Horse with no Name]

Row after row of recent deaths.
How that in of itself doesn’t convince people to get vaccinated is beyond me.
When this started, I felt for certain that once it hit home it would change minds. Sadly, it has not.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. They would rather die than admit they were wrong! No kidding. n/t

[Hugh_Lebowski]

3. They're cult members (nt)

[dalton99a]

2. Many are dying outside the hospitals.

Rural hospitals are full or closed. Big city hospitals are full.

[herding cats]

4. Rural people, for the most part, are transported elsewhere.

Most rural places have zero ICU beds, a few have up to a handful in slightly more populated areas. They've always been shipped away within their region. Which means to neighboring larger cities who factor this into their patient load equation. When they fill up, they begin shopping for beds in other regions and later even other states. Which causes lags in local deceased reporting, but the majority do still go to a hospital someplace. Maybe not their region, and sometimes not their state, but someplace.

The real local problems are other emergencies these rural facilities are unable to manage. The lucky ones with ICU beds are fighting to keep a couple of beds available for cancer patients, cardiac, stroke, accident victims, etc., open to save their lives. Every subsequent surge has made this more difficult.

It's extremely stressful for those who delegate these resources, and it's now completely avoidable. Which makes it even worse.

[wnylib]

6. My county is rural, with 2 small cities

and several villages, hamlets, and farms. There are 3 hospitals in the county, but one does only outpatient care and has no beds. The other 2 have small ICUs and inpatient bed capacities.

This week, there were a couple days with over 100 new cases and over 50 the rest of the week. In one day, the number of hospitalizations doubled literally overnight. If they have to go outside the county, the likely place would be Buffalo, but they have high infection rates, too. However, they also have several hospitals.

The other nearby alternatives, outside the state, are in PA, but I checked online and they are already at capacity.

[Kaleva]

7. There are 62 adult ICU beds in the rural part of Michigan where I live.

44 are occupied.

https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98159-523641--,00.html

Another soruce:

"As of Thursday, 49 of 62 available adult ICU beds in Upper Michigan hospitals are filled. That number is higher than one month ago, when 45 of 59 beds were filled. There are seven coronavirus patients in the ICU right now, which is five more than this time last month."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/uphs-ceo-surge-of-unvaccinated-coronavirus-patients-was-largely-preventable/ar-AAO2So2

[left-of-center2012]

5. "row after row of recent deaths"

Where is that?

Although I live in Albuquerque, I check newspapers online from several places around the country where I have lived during my 75 years.

I am not seeing these row after row of obituaries,
so am curious where you are seeing them?

[Kaleva]

8. I would like to know too because that's not happening where I live.

In my home county, we've had about 21 Covid19 related deaths since the pandemic started a year an a half ago.

[left-of-center2012]

9. And adding to my comment ...

The obituaries I am seeing are primarily people around my age who have passed on, auto accidents, cancer, etc.

[Horse with no Name]

11. Pick any rural East Texas town and look at the funeral home listings

One of my former colleagues died of Covid and I went to was looking at her obit and noticed all the ones who had died

[left-of-center2012]

13. How about sharing the name of that newspaper?

[Horse with no Name]

14. How about that I live in a small rural Texas town

And don’t want a target on my back?

[left-of-center2012]

16. Uh huh

[Midnight Writer]

10. In my rural county, we had zero Covid deaths for two months. Now eight in last two weeks.

We have a vax rate of 36% and you will see very few masks worn if you get out and about.

We are ripe for a reaping.

[Horse with no Name]

15. It's getting pretty bad

Be careful.

[ananda]

12. Covid is rampant in rural areas.

My great niece lives in a liberal family surrounded
by red crazies.

She was raised by her grandmother who recently
told me about some of the sickness and death among
people she knows.

It's so sad, not just for the sick and dying, but for
my niece's grandmother who knows these people
and feels so bad.