Critical Conversations with Rural Covid Deniers:Lessons Learned from Climate Change Denial

Overview: Rural areas are heavily affected by Covid. The situation is exacerbated by failure to wear masks or social distance on the basis of personal freedom and economic distress to communities, coupled with assertations that Covid does not exist and is a leftist plot.Proposal text: According to the CDC, about 46 million Americans live in rural areas and struggle with challenges related to the pandemic.
Systemic health and social inequities have put some rural residents at increased risk of getting COVID-19. Rural Americans tend to have higher rates of smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, less access to healthcare and are also less likely to have health insurance. These issues negatively impact health.
Rural communities are becoming more diverse racially and ethnically. Research shows racial and ethnic minority groups are at increased risk of getting severe cases of COVID-19. Rural Americans may be at higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19 because they are older than non-rural populations, have higher rates of underlying chronic disease even after adjusting for age, are more likely to have a disability and adults with disabilities are three times more likely to have heart disease, stroke, diabetes, or cancer as those without disabilities.
Further, rural healthcare infrastructure is limited. Since 2005, according to the CDC 170 hospitals have closed and 700 more are at risk of closure. Many rural hospitals have a limited number of hospital beds, ICU beds, or ventilators, which can affect their ability to treat patients with COVID-19. Rural residents seeking care must often travel long distances to reach hospitals, health care facilities, and clinical specialists.
In spite of the vulnerability of rural populations to Covid and the lack of health care resources to care for the population and the fact that many family members and friends have had Covid and many have died from Covid, many people still deny that Covid is a pandemic and their community is vulnerable.
So, how do we initiate critical conversations around this issue? First, we must remember that that no amount of evidence will convince a denier, because their beliefs are not about evidence in the first place. Their denial is caught up with who they are and whom they trust.
Anecdotal accounts indicate that the best way to change someone's mind is through personal engagement. Rural people are more likely to hear those whom they trust rather than authorities from elsewhere. This is part of rural culture. Conversation with someone they know, who listened, treated them respectfully, and demonstrated empathy—then worked in the facts once trust had been built is much more likely to be successful in rural areas than citing scientific evidence.
What matters most is that a way is found to break through the wall of partisan identity that supports denial to make a human connection. Perhaps start by letting the COVID-19 denier try to convince you and see what happens. MacIntyre explains: “The antidote to doubt is trust. And the most important way to build trust is to start talking to one another again”.

The authors plan to use the poster to introduce key points for social worker to use in engaging in these critical conversations around Covid in smaller communities that can serve as a framework for teaching social work students.