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The highest rates of death for COVID-19+ patients in the USA will likely end up being in our rural counties. States that didn't expand medicare through the ACA will be the hardest hit. The rural health care system in the USA is completely broken. Some counties without hospitals!
Source: The Conversation
September 30, 2019 7.24am EDT. http://theconversation.com/rural-hospital-closings-reach-crisis-stage-leaving-millions-without-nearby-health-care-124072
September 30, 2019 7.24am EDT. http://theconversation.com/rural-hospital-closings-reach-crisis-stage-leaving-millions-without-nearby-health-care-124072
Millions Of Older Americans Live In Counties With No ICU Beds As Pandemic Intensifies: More than half the counties in America have no intensive care beds, posing a particular danger for more than 7 million people who are age 60 and up. https://khn.org/news/as-coronavirus-spreads-widely-millions-of-older-americans-live-in-counties-with-no-icu-beds/
Overall, 18 million people live in counties that have hospitals but no ICU, about a quarter of them 60 or older, the analysis shows. Nearly 11 million more Americans reside in counties with no hospital, some 2.7 million of them seniors.
Now lets add this NYT travel map for the USA 3/29-4/4 as an overlay. Notice how it generally shows the lack of adherence to 'stay at home' measures corresponding with the counties without hospitals, or with hospitals without ICU capacity, in the map above.
COVID-19 can not differentiate, not for the size of a city or towns population, and not for an individuals political leanings, it is an equal opportunity killer. If it hasn't already, it will eventually spread to every region of the USA. It is just a matter of time.
