Rural America Needs Bold, Decisive Leadership Now
Rural America needs bold and immediate action to weather the humanitarian and economic crisis sparked by COVID-19. Rural people -- whether they are white, Black, brown, or indigenous -- are poorer, older, and experience higher rates of key risk factors when compared to the nation as a whole. This combined with diminished social safety nets, strained healthcare systems, and crumbling infrastructure means that rural communities will be shocked by the force of this pandemic—whatever the timing and geographic distribution of cases. While a historic crisis looms, rural America is still struggling to recover from the Great Recession, which hit rural communities harder, earlier, and longer than urban areas, and still lags behind in employment, child poverty, and life expectancy. [...]
