Covid-19 vaccination gaps mainly in South and rural areas; health experts say that leaves room for variants to develop

Washington Post map shows vaccination rates; to enlarge, click on it.

A month after every American adult became eligible to get a coronavirus vaccine, "a distinct geographic pattern has emerged," The Associated Press reports. "The highest vaccination rates are concentrated in the Northeast, while the lowest ones are mostly in the South. "The divides aren’t just limited to states — there are marked differences between urban and rural places, from county to county and from one neighborhood to another."

The disparities are even more glaring when looking at individual places around the U.S.," Collin Binkley, Jay Reeves and John Seewer report. "Vermont has four counties where 75% of the residents have had at least one dose, while there are 11 Mississippi counties with under 25% vaccinated. . . . Experts say the gap reflects a multitude of factors, including political leanings, religious beliefs, and education and income levels."

The gaps leave openings for the virus, and mutated variants that could be more contagious or deadly, experts say. “Low vaccination rates will leave room for the virus to circulate, re-emerge and possibly form new variants,” Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told AP. “High vaccination rates are critical to keeping the disease under control, especially when we get back to the fall and winter.”

The story notes a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that 39% of adults in rural counties had received at least one dose of vaccine, compared with 46% in urban counties as of April 10.