Study: COVID-19 now spreading fastest in small, rural counties

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN

The coronavirus pandemic is spreading out from urban centers and increasingly infecting residents in small rural counties, even as some of those areas begin to loosen lockdown requirements aimed at stopping its spread.

A new analysis shows nearly three-quarters of Americans live in counties where the virus is now spreading widely. Another 200 counties have seen significant growth in infection trends in the last week, making them high-prevalence counties - areas where the virus has infected at least one in a thousand people.

Like ripples in a pond, the virus is radiating out from its epicenters in large cities.

An outbreak that started in New York City spread first to New Jersey and Connecticut, then south to Philadelphia, and now to upstate counties in New York like Hamilton and Essex and smaller Pennsylvania counties like Lycoming and Wyoming.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/study-covid-19-now-spreading-fastest-in-small-rural-counties/ar-BB148Dp6?li=BBnb7Kz

[C Moon]

1. I'm in a suburb of Los Angeles, there are supposedly only 60 or so cases.

But close by surrounding cities are hot spots. Regardless, many of the Trump types around here piss me off because they try to walk right up to you and talk as if the virus has never existed. If these areas mentioned above, have people like that (letting their guards down), than I would imagine that would be the reason.

[TomCADem]

3. Reports That COVID-19 Was Hitting Minority Communities Hard...

...probably helped Fox News and right wing media efforts to ignore the spread of the disease on the ground that it only hits old people and brown people. The big cover-up will be if COVID-19 starts to spread among in historically red areas. Of course, after pushing this idea that people are overreacting to COVID-19, it will be tough to now convince Trump supporters to take precautions when ignoring precautions has now become an act of political expression.

You would think that stopping the spread of a pandemic should be apolitical, but now behaving in an irresponsible, dangerous manner has become an expression of loyalty to Trump.

[Roc2020]

5. For sure. it's like trump supporters think they

are hurting supporters of the Democratic nominee and anti trumpers by screaming hoax and not taking the virus seriously. Dems and most Independents will not join their irresponsibility. They are hurting and killing themselves.

[Stallion]

2. See Texas Today: Small East Texas Counties-Harrison(10), Panola(7), Nacagdoches (5) Deaths

lead the state in reported deaths today -although Dallas and Harris(Houston) haven't reported yet. Those are shocking numbers for very small rural, non-suburban counties

[yellowdogintexas]

25. also look at Potter county (Amarillo) which has had a huge spike this week

due to the meat processing plants and the workers. Also one of the bordering counties. It is definitely getting worse

[yaesu]

4. I went shopping today in my small, rural tRumpland, though masks are mandatory only about

20% of shoppers had masks on, mostly older folk, the young were running around like it was party time and the cops have already announced that they aren't going to enforce anything our Dem gov ordered.

[AllaN01Bear]

6. they have no choice . am fed up with repub cops choosing what they want to enforce .

[Rebl2]

9. Well guess

that means there will be many young people that develop the virus and spread it around your small town. I live in a suburb of Kansas City and have been out for medical reasons and a couple of times to a store. Most of the young people I see don’t wear a mask and a few older people not wearing them. I think they believe there is no way they will get it.

[mwb970]

13. My grocery store is at 100%.

All staff and all customers. And this is in a ritzy suburb! No trump worshipers here, apparently.

[yaesu]

14. That's good, I'm glad there are some unselfish people out there taking this serious. nt

[MrModerate]

20. The wealthy have more to live for, and often are not trapped in dysfunctional situations. n/t

[mwb970]

27. I'm not sure I can subscribe to either of those, but OK.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

7. Any of them returning to work...

... indoors with the air recirculating near coworkers and customers, returning to restaurants and bars with similar settings, etc... are at high risk.

Then they can bring it back to their homes and give it to everyone else.

[SWBTATTReg]

8. Just a note...when in Hawaii, residents were blaming visitors/tourists for the spread of the CV,

but in fact, it was the Hawaiian natives going to the mainland and then returning, that brought back the CV in the vast majority of cases (I know it's a small base of CV cases, but some like 30+ cases out of 37 total CV cases were brought in from outside Hawaii).

Point is, it's more than likely not visitors or tourists bringing the CV to rural areas. It's the inhabitants of rural areas going to the urban areas to shop, etc., where the CV is active, and then bringing the CV back home.

[nitpicker]

19. And once they infect the local Walmart

Where those who really can't afford to go to the big city shop, then CV gets spread by workers into the meatpacking plants, the nursing homes, maybe the prisons too.

[SWBTATTReg]

23. More than likely (unfortunately) you're absolutely right in one manner of the CV spread. ...

One possible other method of spread is jobs. When I first moved to STLMO, I couldn't believe how far people will drive each way, just to get to work.

Today, I live in STLMO (city proper), and I knew of people (a group of four of them) that drove (one way) from Mount Vernon IL (a 70 mile trip each way to STL), from Rolla MO (almost 110 miles to STL, one way), St. Peters (at least 40-45 miles one way), and I'm sure there are lots of stories of such commutes.

Although the downtown commuters may be safe and etc. (those that are commuting so far), their meals are prepared by workers, their parking money is taken by workers, their offices are cleaned by workers, etc., and all of these workers are safe ??? are CV-free ??? Who knows in today's environment, being that our worthless president doesn't want us to know these critical facts (we all want to know, so that all can take steps to get well, avoid CV-infected persons, etc.).

[DownriverDem]

10. Cell phones were tracked

of protesters at the first Lansing Michigan rally. The people went home to their rural communities and are now testing positive. You can map the grow of the virus as it has moved to NW Michigan.

[Steelrolled]

18. You learn things during times like this

like how you movement can be tracked by cell phone, and released publicly.

[SWBTATTReg]

24. Not surprised! Do you have a link just for my info.? I've been waiting w/ baited breath for this..

to happen, being that it almost a given with how virulent this virus is. I hate to say it, but it does serves these idiots right (but am still sorry that sickness/death will result from these bad decisions...I hope that the money they made to fake protest on trump's behalf/trump's campaign was worth it (doubtful)).

[mpcamb]

11. ...And remember, if you're not urban, you're almost certainly under-tested.

If you're urban, you're probably under tested too.

[mwb970]

12. Maybe this will put an end to "This is a blue state problem".

Maybe.

[not_the_one]

15. pots and tears (my version of, sorry, fresh out of fucks)

tots and pears implies tater tots (mm good) and pears (healthy)

My thoughts for them are FAR from good and healthy...

[LogicFirst]

16. Has anyone read a study which directly correlates education level with mask wearing

and social distancing compliance? Just curious.

[paleotn]

32. Anecdotal, but.....

in the pricey, highly educated, liberal arts college town nearby, mask usage is very high. In less exclusive towns nearby, not so much. That’s in New England.

[Aussie105]

17. Well, I guess that they can serve as the comparison group

to show the rest of the country and the world what happens if you don't take it seriously.

Bluff and bluster, and being tough independent Americans doesn't work too well as a defense against the virus, it seems.

Apparently during the Black Death, a lot of town people fled the dangerous big cities for the safety of the countryside, with disastrous consequences.

[MineralMan]

22. Ah, you beat me by a few minutes.

[dalton99a]

26. +1

[MineralMan]

21. That's not at all surprising.

The early spread was within major cities and other places with high population density. It takes longer for such an epidemic to spread to rural areas.

During the European plague, wealthy people fled from the cities to their country estates. They brought the plague with them. For quite some time, the countryside had few cases, but that changed once the rich moved to rural areas to escape the infection.

Even so, the plague affected rural areas less than it did the cities, for a number of reasons.

[Nitram]

29. People in rural areas are more isolated in general. But they still need to go shopping.

[Nitram]

28. My impression is that people in rural communities think they are safe from the virus.

It may be a combination of people thinking their rural community is safe, and rural people in general not believing what the government says.

[FakeNoose]

30. They believe Jesus will save them

... or else Chump, whoever's more powerful.

[Nitram]

31. That's true for some, but others believe rural areas are naturally isolated from the outside world.

To some extent that's true. Unless someone travels outside the community and returns with the virus, it is likely no one will get infected. I live in a rural area, and the only family in our area that has contracted the virus so far went on a trip to NY and came back sick.