Daily Yonder: Rural Areas With Little Internet or USPS Coverage Face Increased Challenges Getting Free COVID Tests

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February 1, 2022

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In a new story from The Daily Yonder, the federal government is sending out free COVID-19 tests to every American. However, if you live in rural America and have a spotty Internet connection or a long drive to your Post Office box, getting the tests is easier said than done.

From the story: “First, there’s already the issue with the U.S. postal system and delays in delivery, said Christopher Shaw, author of First Class: The U.S. Postal Service, Democracy, and the Corporate Threat.

“Then there’s also the website, which is new, and just came online,” Shaw said in a phone interview with the Daily Yonder. “And I’m hearing that there’s some glitches with that. So we’ll have to get those ironed out. If people are at an address, where there’s more than one household and address and one household has already ordered from that address, there could be some confusion.”

Another issue is that in some parts of rural America there are no street addresses to enter into the ordering system, he said.

Aside from the USPS issues, Shaw said getting online to order the tests may be an issues for some residents.

“If you’re in a rural place where you don’t really have access to the internet, which is a sizable number of people in this country, then how are you going to use the website to order in the first place?” he said.”

Despite these hurdles, according to the story the United States Postal System is still a good way to get COVID tests to virtually every American, regardless of where they live. And with the at-home tests, patients won’t have to wait days or even weeks to get results back from a lab.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

SOURCE: The Daily Yonder

When Writing About COVID, Local Journalists Should Stay Away From “Elite” Sources, According to New Research

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Candice Clark

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February 1, 2022

According to a new study from the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, reporters working their beats need to stick to local sources when talking about COVID-19 and ongoing pandemic measures, otherwise they may further alienate community members already wary of government public health officials.

From the story, published on the Institute’s website: “While demographic factors — such as age and race — and partisanship explained some variance in views about vaccination and public health recommendations, anti-elitism accounted for more than a third of this variance. Though partisanship has been seen as an important factor in the divide between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, this finding indicates the story is more nuanced, especially given that the media — one of the primary purveyors of public health information — is itself considered “elite” by many who hold anti-elitist values.

However, the results demonstrated that the effect works both ways; an increase in trust from “elitist” information sources corresponded with an increase in favorable attitudes toward public health recommendations and vaccination.

“One of the core problems with scientific solutions for COVID-19 is that those who develop them and communicate about them are distrusted by a significant percentage of the population,” Luisi said. “Now we know that much of that distrust can be explained by anti-elitism, which is prevalent enough to undermine our ability to achieve herd immunity.”

According to the researchers, this rise in distrust can be tempered if local newspapers and reporters write stories geared towards what the local health officials are doing, and not what the “elite” are doing. Seeing what is being accomplished in their own backyards, without mentioning such entities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), could lead local folks into following more pandemic guidelines, and eventually an end to the pandemic in rural America.

To read the rest of the story, click here.

SOURCE: The Rural Blog, www.rjionline.org

Missouri: Different Definitions of “Rural” Leave Small Towns Bereft of Funding

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Candice Clark

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January 31, 2022

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In Missouri, one small town is left with empty pockets for broadband funding, as differing definitions of “rural” may qualify his town for one out of hundreds of grants designed to help communities just like his.

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Daily Yonder: Rural Women Organize To Fight Back Against Reproductive Bans

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Candice Clark

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January 31, 2022

In a commentary post for The Daily Yonder, Carolyn Campbell traveled through rural Mississippi and Texas as state governments began banning or restricting abortion and reproductive rights. What she found was rural women, from conservative to liberal, young and old, angry and organizing to fight back.

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Daily Yonder: Rural Hospitals on the Brink of Closing After Federal Funding Dries Up

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Candice Clark

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January 28, 2022

Female nurse with a mask putting on gloves

In a new story from The Daily Yonder, rural hospitals across America are once again facing the possibility of closing. With the reversals to pre-pandemic Medicare and Medicaid rates and no more federal funding, many facilities are back where they started.

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