Epidemiologist: Rural Communities Continue To Get Hit Hard By COVID

In September, rural counties across the country reported a higher number of COVID-19 cases compared to their urban and suburban counterparts. As farmers and ranchers are busy this fall, they don’t exactly have time to be sick, there’s crops to harvest, livestock to care for and community events—all equally important to rural communities.

Dr. Neil Ku, hospital epidemiologist and medical director of infection control and antimicrobial stewardship at Billings Clinic in Billings, MT, said your risk of getting COVID-19 or even dying from the virus are higher than of those in urban settings.

“And the deaths due to COVID-19 of rural Americans are currently twice the rate of people in the urban areas. And roughly about 35% of rural Americans are unvaccinated. That is ten percent more of their urban and suburban counterparts.”

Dr. Ku said your best chance to protect yourself and your community is to get vaccinated.

“The more people who are vaccinated, the more effective vaccination is to protect not just you but your family's, loved ones, friends, and members of the community from getting acutely ill from COVID-19, and subsequently requiring to be hospitalized. If you haven't gotten vaccinated, it's much more readily available than it was eight, nine months ago.”

And getting vaccinated, Dr. Ku says, is not just a decision that affects you, calling it a public health tool, which he noted really helps with the spread of several infectious diseases. While you may hear of breakthrough cases, or adverse reaction to the vaccine, Dr. Ku says those events are rare.

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