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New from me: I analyzed COVID-19 confirmed cases and deaths data across the rural South. Here's what I found (brief thread, sorry) https://www.facingsouth.org/2020/05/here%27s-what%27s-driving-rural-souths-covid-19-outbreaks
All of the rural Southern counties with the highest # of cases per capita — numbers that put them among the largest outbreaks per capita in the country — have prisons or poultry processing plants. https://www.facingsouth.org/2020/05/here%27s-what%27s-driving-rural-souths-covid-19-outbreaks
But counties with the highest # of deaths per capita to this point are overwhelmingly in the deep South — and have higher black populations. https://www.facingsouth.org/2020/05/here%27s-what%27s-driving-rural-souths-covid-19-outbreaks
And if you break down the median cases & deaths by the racial demographics of a rural Southern county, you see that as the black share of the population goes up, cases & deaths do too. As the white share increases, cases & deaths go down.
This data is all as of May 17, so numbers may be slightly off what's current now. One caveat: confirmed cases are likely higher in some counties with prisons & meatpacking plants in part because there's been concerted efforts to test people in those locations.
