Rural Mortalities, Hospitalizations From The Pandemic Begin To Slow

There are 50 U.S. states rolling out COVID-19 vaccines to people in 50 different ways, and that’s posed a dilemma for rural America, says Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association.

“There’s not a lot of commonality between urban and rural areas, so it’s been a mixed bag for how the vaccines have rolled out in the countryside,” he says.

Some states, or parts of states, such as Kansas, Nebraska and West Virginia have done a good job of getting the vaccines out to rural America, while other states haven’t.

“There was a small town in North Carolina offered 100 doses of a vaccine, but they didn’t accept them because they didn’t have the manpower to administer it in a timely manner,” Morgan says, as a for instance.

The good news, though, is that hospitalizations and mortality rates are beginning to slow in small towns and in the countryside at a better rate than what’s occurring now in urban areas.

“This is the first time, right now, over the last two weeks, since last July that that’s happened,” he said on AgriTalk on Tuesday.

Prior to now, hospitalizations and mortality rates in rural America were above those in urban areas.

“In December, according to the CDC, mortality rates per population in rural America was 48%, higher than in urban areas, and I just don't think that message, unfortunately, got out there,” Morgan says.

He attributes that to several things: logistic issues getting the vaccines distributed to rural America; manpower in rural areas to administer them, and, third, a higher level of vaccine hesitancy than by residents in urban areas.

“And for most of this pandemic, you know, let's be honest, in small towns across the U.S., we've been kind of hesitant to wear a mask and social distance, and those two things coming together really hit us hard,” he says.

Morgan says telehealth opportunities are making a significant difference for rural Americans who are seeking both mental and physical health support.

“This pandemic has opened up telehealth for people in their own homes,” Morgan says. “I'm really optimistic that we're going to see both the state level and the federal level try to address this (pandemic) by increasing access to behavioral health specialists in a rural context, and really pivoting to focus more on this as we come out of this crisis. But it takes access to broadband,” he adds. “You have to have a smart phone allowing video, and you have to have good cellphone service.”

Listen to the full discussion on AgriTalk here:

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