Rural people seen reluctant on shots
People living in rural areas are less likely to have received the covid-19 vaccine and more likely to be reluctant to be vaccinated, according to a report released this month.
That's compared with people in suburban or urban areas, who had higher vaccination rates and expressed more willingness to be vaccinated, the report found.
The Covid States Project, a collaboration of researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Rutgers and other universities conducted the analysis. Their study of vaccination rates and attitudes drew on a survey of 21,500 people across 50 states.
It found "substantial" variance of vaccine resistance by state, the researchers wrote.
Oklahoma and North Dakota -- both rural states -- had the largest groups of survey respondents, at 33%, who said they would not get the covid-19 vaccine or were "extremely unlikely" to be vaccinated.
Arkansas was close behind, with 31% of respondents saying they won't get the shots.
Researchers wrote that pro-vaccination campaigns should enlist primary-care physicians, whom experts say members of the public trust more than other sources of information.
Other messaging strategies, such as advertising, "are likely to be far less effective at informing people about the risks of vaccination, and persuading them that the benefits outweigh the risks," the social scientists wrote.
State ranked low in life expectancy
Life expectancy in Arkansas was lower than all but seven states, a March report from the National Center for Vital Statistics found.
The federal report analyzed life expectancy based on the year 2018. Life expectancy for Arkansans was 75.6 years, compared with 81 years in Hawaii, the leading state, according to the report.
West Virginians had the shortest life expectancy at 74.4 years.
Men's life expectancy in Arkansas was more than five years shorter than women's, at 73 years to 78.2 years.
That was comparable to the spread seen in the national life expectancy averages of 76.2 years for men and 81.2 years for women.