Coronavirus Was Slow to Spread to Rural America. Not Anymore.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Grace Rhodes was getting worried last month as she watched the coronavirus tear through New York and Chicago. But her 8,000-person hometown in southern Illinois still had no reported cases, and her boss at her pharmacy job assured her: “It’ll never get here.”

Now it has. A new wave of coronavirus cases is spreading deep into rural corners of the country where people once hoped their communities might be shielded because of their isolation from hard-hit urban centers and the natural social distancing of life in the countryside.

The coronavirus has officially reached nearly three-quarters of the country’s rural counties, with 1 in 7 reporting at least one death. Doctors and elected officials are warning that a late-arriving wave of illness could overwhelm rural communities that are older, poorer and sicker than much of the country, and already dangerously short on medical help.

“Everybody never really thought it would get to us,” said Rhodes, 18, who is studying to become a nurse. “A lot of people are in denial.”

https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-slow-spread-rural-america-122824791.html

[idziak4ever1234]

1. I was expecting this. I am quite curious how this will play out.

[Azathoth]

7. The ones who survive will blame Democrats

The exact reasoning they will use is TBD, but the conclusion has already been drawn.

[customerserviceguy]

10. There's already a natural tension

between city people and country folks, I'm sure that Trump will exacerbate that in his efforts to keep their votes.

[meadowlander]

25. Trump will say California and New York snapped up all the medical equipment and personnel

and that's why their hospitals are overrun.

Not because their Republican state governments have been defunding hospitals for decades, their Republican governors were too late issuing stay and home orders and Trump botched the testing.

[SoonerPride]

2. That map Agolf Twitler likes to trot out with all those red counties is accurate

Now, because that will be his supporters' blood.

The virus will kill disproportionately among communities of color and rural poor.

He will be killing off his base.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

17. GOP likely ran the numbers and figure more urban Dems die than red MAGAts.

[Windy City Charlie]

3. Not good

Depending on what part of southern Illinois they're talking about, there's not a major medical center anywhere close.

[robbedvoter]

4. Seen this in NYS. President Cuomo said that we're the microcosm of the nation

🍊 thought only urba areas can get it and was probably happy to see us decimated. Those media darlings, rural diners better be able to use ventilators, because hospitals there - not so many.

[Newest Reality]

5. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion, either...

What kind of thinking is that, though?

When you see a fire nearby, you might want to watch for the wind to change and start doing something to prepare for a blaze.

I mean, just HOW did they imagine it would "never get here"? An invisible shield? Not understanding how it spreads?

Rural areas do have some people with intelligence common sense, (I have lived in a couple). Maybe they are just deteriorating in general for various reasons and due to conditions?

[iemitsu]

8. Them folks are covered with the protective,

blood of Christ. I saw them on the television coming out of church services.

[TheBlackAdder]

21. So, when their loved ones start to die, they must have been a sinner or forsaken somehow.

.

Of course, they'll spin it as God wanted to take them into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Everyone else who dies from it was a sinner, but not their loved ones.

.

[iemitsu]

24. I suppose the "loved ones" who die were secretly gay.

[phylny]

39. You know, if anyone was this callous about

New York, we’d all be screaming. I’m Christian, a Democrat, and I live in a rural area. There are plenty of people right here on DU who are just like me. None of this is funny. As a former New Yorker, I ask that all this finger pointing and sneering stop, please.

[HarlanPepper]

42. You will be attacked but I agree

It’s a bad look, IMO.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Plus rural counties are much redder & (sorry to say it) much more cultishly defiant & deluded.

Not waiting for the Matrix lovers, going back to work myself this saturday.
15 posted on 4/10/2020 by Daniel Ramsey (Thank YOU
President Trump, finally we can do what America does best, to be the best)

It’ll be too damn late by then. Unemployment will be at 30%. Open up
the place now! Make mask wearing mandatory for 2 weeks. Returaunts
dine out only and hydroxychloquine MANDATORY treatment for any
patients. Oh and kill Fauxi and Blix as traitors.
25 posted on 4/10/2020 by Bommer (I am a MAGA-Deplorian!
It is the way! It is the only way!)

They think the economic depression will kill more people than the virus ever will.

Trump needs to bring psychiatrists to his daily briefings to discuss
the mental health toll - suicides and depression - that the shutdown
and mass unemployment is causing. He has to go on the offensive with
lots of hard information and human tragedy stories. The well paid
Fauci and Blix are “let them eat cake” elitists , and they need to be
exposed for their callousness
5 posted on 4/10/2020 by rintintin (qu)

I’m gonna say it even if I get flamed!... The president was DUPED!!
This will come down in history as the biggest ill adviced hysteria in
the history of the USA and trump will be faulted! The majority of our
hospitals IN EL PASO ARE EMPTY! There is a doctor in El Paso who said
that the max we have here a border town city of coronavirus patients
is.... you ready?.., 50! We shut down our city for 50! No deaths!!!!!!
Where are the 100 hundreds of thousands of deaths????!!! ! BIGGEST
PANDEMIC CREATED BY THE DEEP STATE and the evil as hell mediaVOMITS!!
BIGGEST!! DUPED DUPED DUPED!!!
17 posted on 4/8/2020 by RoseofTexas

[AwakeAtLast]

19. Oh yeah, they all think the death numbers are made up. n/t

[Crunchy Frog]

32. Covid-19 is too good for them.

[Wellstone ruled]

12. You will see a surge.

Growing up in Western Wisconsin,this is the time of year when all hell breaks
lose for cold and flu's. By the first of May,everyone in the Northern part of the State has a red chapped nose and face.

Enjoy the next few days.

[Wellstone ruled]

14. Hang in there, and stay safe.

[HarlanPepper]

43. Don't let the doomsayers bother you

You know your community, your situation on the ground etc. The pop up epidemiologists here do not, much as they think they do.

[FBaggins]

30. You must have been quite young and are misremembering

Wisconsin’s cold and flu season isn’t in April and May. It usually peaks in Jan/Feb like much of the country.

[Wellstone ruled]

31. Nope,every friggin Spring

usually when the snow banks melted down and the Ditches were full .

[FBaggins]

40. Only in your memory it would seem

Or maybe the state has been lying about the numbers for years?

https://infogram.com/seasonal-flu-cases-in-wisconsin-2009-18-1h7z2l1oxpny4ow

[stillcool]

15. this is a site that has all the states...

peak projection dates...not that I understand the math, or the virus, but it's interesting.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/07/825479416/new-yorks-coronavirus-deaths-may-level-off-soon-when-might-your-state-s-peak

[Steelrolled]

28. The estimates have really come down on this site.

Hope it is accurate, but seems a little too good to be true.

[TeamPooka]

34. That's where we were two weeks ago. and even shut down we are at 298 cases w/ 10 dead

[Wounded Bear]

11. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt...nt

[Talitha]

16. I expect none of us on this planet will go completely unscathed.

It's a virus.... eventually it will probably find its way to Antarctica.

What scares me is that my rural WI county (and others) don't have any ICU beds.

Fishing season opens soon - unless they cancel it, but last time I checked the DNR website it was still on. They're asking people to fish in their own area which is fine for those who live here. BUT what about the tourists that flock into the area every year?

People will be coming here to open their cabins, too. I've heard that our Governor has asked them not to do it but good luck with that.

[AwakeAtLast]

18. 8,000 is a large town/city in So. Illinois

Most towns here have less than 3,000 and not every county has a hospital. Mine does not.

[smirkymonkey]

20. The southern and midwestern states also have much higher rates of obesity, which

will make their chances of recovery slimmer than for those in northeastern/western states. See map below.

https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/brfss_2018_obesity-overall.svg

[TheBlackAdder]

22. It doesn't look like Forida had any reported deaths today and have a disproportionately low number.

.

It's still at 390, with 17,531 cases. Slightly higher than the ratio that Texas is reporting 242 with 12226 infected.

This seems out of sync with the other states.

https://infection2020.com/

.

[TeamPooka]

35. can we trust Red Gov's who lie about young people dying to release accurate numbers?

[Flaleftist]

23. That was bound to happen.

And these rural areas are less equipped to handle ICU/ vent patients. And they still seem to think large gatherings are okay because "freedom"

[underpants]

26. How many rural hospitals have closed?

I know I’ve been reading about that for at least a year.

[Lars39]

27. Such insular thinking

Conformity...They act like because they’ve never been 50 miles away from their hometown that no one else ever travels either.

[Crunchy Frog]

29. Even the Faroe Islands got clobbered.

if they were vulnerable, then small town America is gonna get it.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

33. These two snips from the article speak volumes.....

Excerpts:

In Mangum, Oklahoma, a town of 6,000 in the western part of the state, it all started with a visit. A pastor from Tulsa appeared at a local church, but got sick shortly thereafter and became the state’s first COVID-19 fatality.

Then somebody at the local church started to feel unwell — a person who eventually tested positive for coronavirus.

“Then it was just a matter of time,” said Mangum’s mayor, Mary Jane Scott. Before realizing they were infected, several people who eventually tested positive for the virus had moved about widely through the city, including to the local nursing home, which now has a cluster of cases.

Rich ski towns like Sun Valley, Idaho, and Vail, Colorado, have some of the highest infection rates in the country, and are discouraging visitors and second homeowners from seeking refuge in the mountains.

People thinking they're immune because of status, wealth or religion is far too commonplace.

But in America, freedom trumps all reasoning.......

[TreadSoftly]

36. yes, the visitors and the people moving relatives and themselves may kill

I have begun to worry whether 14 days quarantine is enough.

I lately hear "just spent time with someone who moved from NYC to PA now to here" and "just moved my parent(s) here" so the virus gets a free ride to the clean countryside.

We needed good testing yesterday.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

38. Perhaps our states need to heavily emphasize limiting of travel....

along with the stay-at-home mantra.

Agree, confirmed clean test results prior to other than local travel would be a sound policy, although almost impossible to achieve in our "free" society.

[ALBliberal]

37. Everybody never thought... says so much.

[SlogginThroughIt]

41. Man we really are showing our ugly side here in this thread.