I've had the opposite experience the past year. Rural areas in my state have been swamped with COVID patients, to the point they've had to send patients to larger hospitals an hour or more away. Many of the urban hospitals were at or near capacity because they've been swamped with rural patients seeking medical attention. And communicable diseases are only part of overall health. When you look at chronic diseases- heart disease, diabetes, etc- in my part of the world, rural areas are hotbeds.
I've also lived in rural areas long enough to know- things get stolen. People trespass. People settle scores. A neighbor had his hay barn burned down because someone didn't let him hunt the property. A guy got his deer stand stolen because for turning a poacher in. A different neighbor was growing pot in his chicken shed and everyone knew it, even though no one had seen it. Because in my personal rural experience if you know the sheriff, or the deputy, or the 911 dispatcher- you know an awful lot more about your neighbors than they think. And there's a fair chance they know a lot more about you than you think, too.
I don't know the right answer, I don't know if there is one. But I think, in a lot of ways, we're oversimplifying.
