Rural Communities Fall Further Behind In COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/06/11/ [login to see] /rural-communities-fall-farther-behind-in-covid-19-vaccination-rates
Rural communities outside America's cities are falling further behind in the race to vaccinate against COVID-19 as President Joe Biden's Fourth of July goal to reach 70% of American adults looms over the horizon.

Alaska is the sole state where average rural rates of fully vaccinated people have grown faster than urban rates since April 19, when every state opened shots to anybody 16 and older, according to NPR's latest analysis of county-level vaccination data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Everywhere else, rates in urban counties have outpaced those in rural counties.

Over a dozen states where rural rates were actually beating urban ones seven weeks ago have flipped, so they now trail their urban counterparts. Those include Oregon where rural places now trail urban by 9 percentage points and Maine where they're now behind by 7 points.

Florida, Massachusetts and Nebraska have the largest disparity, with rural counties lagging by 14 percentage points. For Florida and Nebraska those gaps are about double what they were in mid-April.

Though stark, these gaps may hide a more complex story of vaccination rates, as the data reveals plenty of rural counties well above average and urban areas dragging their feet.