> have often had higher rates of covid 19 infections than cities in the area

Several factors at play:

- people thought COVID19 was not a thing outside of cities so people were more careless in rural areas

- wearing of masks is much less in rural areas than cities

- more local communities in rural areas (religious services for example)

But if you NEED to isolate yourself it's much easier to do it in the countryside than in a city.

> But if you NEED to isolate yourself it’s much easier to do in the countryside than in a city.

In practice there are several flaws in that assumption. The lack of grocery deliveries is one major issue with rural isolation. Keep digging and you find several short vs long term issues. Consider, if you need a car you then need to eventually take it in for repairs etc.

In rural areas you have more space to stock food to live completely off the usual distribution networks for a longer time. In cities if you live in a small apartment you are tributary to shopping very often or having deliveries frequently, which increases the chance of contamination.

You can keep a years supply of food in a small closet. Everyone can’t suddenly buy a years supply of food in a crisis. Which is how this really plays out, if everyone tries to suddenly stock up on supplies that fails. So space is not a limiting factor in a pandemic.

Further, going to work is a larger concern. A higher percentage of people in cities can WFH indefinitely.

> You can keep a years supply of food in a small closet.

Yeah, I worked out the space requirements once, and it's actually feasible to stock a lifetime's worth of Calories in a fairly small apartment.