Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Stories cover rural impact of the coronavirus, plus a closeup on a rural town where many are already sick

Three recent news stories offer a good overview of how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting rural America.

In this piece, April Simpson of Stateline digs into how covid-19 is stretching the limits of rural America's already strained health-care system.

This piece, from Forbes contributor Clary Estes, takes a deep dive into the many issues that can exacerbate or complicate the outbreak in rural areas, including broadband, black lung, demographics, and (frequently) the lack of reliable local news sources. Estes, who lives in a small town just outside Lexington, Kentucky, notes that many rural residents—including her parents—aren't taking the pandemic seriously and aren't heeding calls to practice social distancing.

And finally, this piece from just down the road in Cynthiana, Kentucky, shows what it's like in a small town already seeing a significant number of covid-19 cases. At one point the town accounted for about half the cases in Kentucky, Rick Rojas reports for The New York Times.

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