Covid now killing rural Americans at twice the rate of urbanites

[struggle4progress]

Rural Americans are dying of covid at more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts — a divide that health experts say is likely to widen as access to medical care shrinks for a population that tends to be older, sicker, heavier, poorer and less vaccinated.

While the initial surge of covid-19 deaths skipped over much of rural America, where roughly 15% of Americans live, nonmetropolitan mortality rates quickly started to outpace those of metropolitan areas as the virus spread nationwide before vaccinations became available, according to data from the Rural Policy Research Institute.

Since the pandemic began, about 1 in 434 rural Americans have died of covid, compared with roughly 1 in 513 urban Americans, the institute’s data shows. And though vaccines have reduced overall covid death rates since the winter peak, rural mortality rates are now more than double urban rates — and accelerating quickly ...

Part of the problem is that covid incidence rates in September were roughly 54% higher in rural areas than elsewhere, said Fred Ullrich, a University of Iowa College of Public Health research analyst who co-authored the institute’s report. He said the analysis compared the rates of nonmetropolitan, or rural, areas and metropolitan, or urban, areas. In 39 states, he added, rural counties had higher rates of covid than their urban counterparts ...

https://khn.org/news/article/covid-death-rate-rural-america/

[LisaL]

1. Rural counties have lower vaxx rates.

So no big surprise there.

[OldBaldy1701E]

5. I know right

Gods, I wish I had a 'job' where I could just write down things that any fool can see for himself and get paid for it.

[Hortensis]

28. :) You'd be a lot less happy when 80 million people ignored you

while claiming failure in messaging (you didn't talk to them) was the reason they didn't vote, and another 80 million called you a corrupt corporate lackey (doesn't matter what your message was, they didn't listen either).

That's presuming, of course, that you weren't among the thousands of hacks who'll "message" anything that creates an income stream. Then your happiness would likely depend on filthy lucre and stature in your field.

[OldBaldy1701E]

37. If I made what those people made

I doubt I would be worried about being ignored. Also, there are very few writers/content producers who are NOT trying to create an income stream. That has been the main reason for creating content since content was created. But, I was referring to being someone paid a guaranteed income just to say something that any fool can see. And, these are 'credible' sources.

[Midnight Writer]

21. And less available health resources.

Quality of health care is also an issue. The top doctors and administrators are recruited to the top hospital systems, not to small town clinics and hospitals.

[Hortensis]

30. Yes, but vaccination was fairly quickly available to virtually every community.

Native Americans initially had the highest vaccination rates because government agencies associated with them recognized very early on the need to get the vaccines to them. Similar if not as fast for most other populations with transportation/isolation issues.

Sure, general healthcare is a factor, but not the main one. Also serious transportation problems, but that's not the problem that caused high nonvaccination rates. The main one is refusal of vaccination due to cultural influences and personal foibles. Back in February, March, April, just like my husband and I, sensible rural people were watching daily to learn where and when vaccination would be available.

[ProfessorGAC]

31. I Sub In A Small Town

In a county of only 50,000. (County to our west.)
That school was the one that added me to their phase 1b list for licensed educators.
At that time, seniors in that little town & farm communities nearby were there when I was
4 weeks later, people from that town were going to get their shots, as I saw a couple of the kids I know with their parents.
So, as early as April that rural community (soybeans & corn everywhere one looks) had access to the vax.
Admittedly, this is only 70 or so miles from Chicago, so it's not rural like northern Montana or something. But, it's definitely rural & a red county.

[Hortensis]

33. We were in Florida then, and vaccinations were being given earliest

by FEMA drive-throughs with county health departments quickly following, so that most FEMA teams moved on to other areas. elsewhere.

(Actually, you'll remember, the first publicly available were the famous Gov. DeSantis's offerings in a couple urban locations of unspecified #s of doses for over-65s and chronically ill people able to stand in long lines for hours in outside in cold, rain, and heat in hopes of maybe getting one. Amazingly, there were long lines. We watched from our easy chairs.)

[ProfessorGAC]

34. I Do Recall That

Saw pictures of those lines.
People in rural areas have ready access for months. It's just foolishness to be so stubborn.

[Hortensis]

35. Yes. Before the mandates, 91% of over-65s were vaccinated though.

Funny how unfoolish most of those were who thought it might kill them, not just unknown others.

[Champp]

2. Right wing Republican country radio

deserves a lot of the blame for spreading the Republican-Russian lies and propaganda throughout rural America.

[Vogon_Glory]

3. +1 n/t

[hadEnuf]

25. Yes, they are practically egging-on people to go out and get covid.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. That's a lot of Missouri and our rural areas are

really red.

[Dr. Shepper]

6. I was reading comments on a COVID

Post from our state public health. This is a very rural state - so rural that I’ve lived in cities with multiple times the population of the entire state.

There are some seriously wack-a-doodle crazy ideas being spread amongst these folks. Unless they are trolling, here are a few examples of what they believe:

Covid vaccine is a shot not a vaccine. Therefore, it doesn’t work.

Covid isn’t real. They are all really influenza cases which were proven to be influenza by electron microscopy of blood samples. (BTW - influenza doesn’t tend to go into the blood stream unless it is a virulent/pandemic level strain and electron microscopy is not as sensitive as PCR tests.)

PCR is the wrong test to use because it is picking up dead virus. (PCR does indeed pick up dead virus, but it isn’t a bad test to use - it shows the virus is there!)

I just don’t understand these people. In one breath they talk about God and in the next spread the stupidest lies.

[lagomorph777]

20. Apparently they have a stupid god.

[Sherman A1]

7. Oh well....

[phylny]

8. I live in a rural county in Virginia, of course very red,

and we have had seven deaths over the last week. Might not sound like a lot, but there’s only 80,000 people who live here. More and more Covid cases every day. I think our vaccination rate is like 40%.

[Midnight Writer]

23. Sounds like where I am in Illinois. Are you seeing behavioral changes lately?

Like more masks, observation of distancing, etc.?

Our county-wide vax rate is 38%, and my town is less than that. We had two months in a row with zero deaths, now have had a dozen this month.

I am seeing some increased mask wearing in the last couple of weeks, but still probably less than 40%. I am guessing most of the mask wearers are vaccinated. Most people don't give a damn, and will tell you so.

[ProfessorGAC]

32. Also, Illinois

Our area is not really rural, but go 20 miles in any direction but north & it's pretty rural.
But here, I'm seeing about 80% masks at the supermarket, nearly everyone at the pharmacy, and 50% at the liquor store.
It was probably 10% in mid-July.
So we are thankfully seeing an uptick in mask use.
Oh, and...
Our town is about 65% fully vaxxed, the county around 60%.

[Botany]

9. Republicans are systematically killing their voters. And their voters are applauding it.

Link to tweet

[bucolic_frolic]

10. So where's the problem in this?

[demigoddess]

26. problem is it leaves us understaffed if there is a war, an attack, or an attempt at a

takeover by a foreign country. It also damages our economy and makes us weaker in case of an attack or takeover attempt by a foreign country. It will make us weaker in the long run making our economy less robust and allowing other countries to become wealthier and strong than we are.

[maxsolomon]

39. Takeover by a foreign country? A war?

WE choose and start our wars, and the US has never been remotely threatened with a "takeover".

I'm not sure your post is serious.

[getagrip_already]

11. don't get smug - the math is terrible for us....

These are rates of death, not total deaths. But the populations are not equal.

Look, 1 in 500 deaths for a population of 1,000,000 people is 2000 deaths.

1 in 400 deaths in a population of 100,000 people is 250 deaths.

See what's happening here? According to the article, rural areas are only 15% of the population the way they measured it.

Urban people are dying at a much higher numerical level than rural. Math!

[Lars39]

12. Is that taking into account

that rural people are taking up urban ICUs, hospital space?

[getagrip_already]

16. don't know... just like

We don't know if the race/political affiliations of unvaxed patients has been looked at. At least it isn't mentioned in this article.

But the implication is clear that numerical deaths are much higher in urban area than in rural areas. As some have noted, some states have very low populations. So their rural death totals would be insignificant compared to a large city.

There are a lot of nuances here. It is not a simple linear tally that can be put on an "us vs them" graph.

And I suspect this is STILL part of republican calculations. They don't believe they are losing a war of attrition. They believe we are. I'm not sure they are wrong.

[lagomorph777]

19. The rates (per 100,000) are relevant. The math is probably very good for us.

Yes, total numbers of urbanites are higher, but even in urban areas, the dead are skewed heavily MAGAT. It's just more noticeable when comparing urban and rural, because we know that 90% of rural people are MAGATs.

[Socal31]

36. Not so.

The pandemic is hitting the .most unvaxxed demographics the hardest, which are black and brown people.

[lagomorph777]

38. I think that information is out of date.

More recent polls show those groups have passed MAGATs in vax rates.

[GusBob]

15. The ugly smugness here gets lost in the details, Such as

The death rate is twice as high for Native Americans, African Americans and Hispanics

But it’s important, I guess, to lump rural folks as just bad people and celebrate their deaths, and assume urban folks shit don’t stink

And ignore the math as you pointed out

[Sympthsical]

24. Because only Trump voters are unvaccinated!

I mean, you'd think that to read here.

People think they're high-fiving all this because they're Trumpists. Nah. A lot of minorities are getting hit by those high-fives, too.

But noting that isn't quite as fun on the internet. Spoils the good time.

I just read above, "the math is good for us."

Jesus.

[we can do it]

13. Buh bye, tired of coddling assholes.

[HAB911]

14. It's a Sad Silver Lining

[dawg]

17. That's surprising.

Due to our proximity to feed stores, we have way more access to Ivermectin out here.

[lagomorph777]

18. Completely unrelated, I'm sure, to the prevalence of Trump Derangement Syndrome in the boonies.

[Aristus]

22. Well, that should make them happy.

After all, they are dying to own the libs...

[Initech]

27. There will be lots of nice land available when this is all over!

[KentuckyWoman]

29. Age old problem.

The county I grew up in has no medical clinic. There are not enough people to support it. When my husband came down sick we deeded the land to family, packed up and moved to Lexington.

I would expect it is even more difficult in the west.

Add politics to the mix and even worse.