Consumer Affairs: Omicron hit rural America harder than cities
UC finds higher mortality from COVID-19 in counties with lower vaccination rates
The finance blog Consumer Affairs highlighted a new study by the University of Cincinnati that found the omicron variant of COVID-19 disproportionately affected rural counties in the United States.
The fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2021 and early 2022 spread quickly in congested urban counties, researchers in UC's College of Arts and Sciences found. But it caused more deaths in rural counties where vaccinations are lagging.
The latest study by the University of Cincinnati, published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, revealed striking disparities in health care between urban and rural America.
Despite the lower overall mortality rate among infected patients from omicron compared to earlier variants, unvaccinated people were more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as vaccinated patients. Researchers concluded that vaccines make a huge difference in patient outcomes despite the high number of breakthrough cases of omicron among vaccinated patients.
Researchers say the study shows how effective vaccination is to protect people from the virus.
Researchers used county health data to compare the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19. Researchers found that the highly infectious omicron variant spread more quickly in urban, populated areas but caused more fatalities in rural America. Some states had incomplete or missing data. Graphic/UC Digital Epidemiology Lab
Related Stories
Bidirectional link between oral, kidney health calls for patient education, access
August 4, 2026
Despite growing awareness of the connection between oral health and chronic health conditions, patient awareness and access to dental care remain limited, according to University of Cincinnati experts who recently spoke with Healio | Nephrology News & Issues.
UC-built detector at CERN looks for enticing evidence to explain dark matter
August 4, 2026
A physicist from the University of Cincinnati and his research partners from around the world conducted an experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland to look for evidence that might help explain one of science’s most baffling questions: dark matter.
The subtle changes in hearing you should never ignore
August 4, 2026
It’s easy to dismiss changes in hearing as minor. But as The Washington Post recently reported, these symptoms could also signal a medical emergency that many people don’t recognize — known as sudden sensorineural hearing loss, a rapid decline in hearing that occurs suddenly or over a few days.