This is fascinating and it shows that whilst there is an ongoing correlation between cities, deprivation and ill health, primary industry areas in rural settings and some specific rural hot spots with other unique characteristics make this whole agenda more nuanced than a simple rural/urban divide. The maps in the article help bring the nuances alive, it begins by telling us:
Healthcare in the UK has vastly improved since Victorian times, yet the geography of coronavirus deaths closely follows the pattern of poor health in the 19th Century.
A succession of studies has found a link between Covid-19 and poverty, with the latest describing a "jaw-dropping" fall in life expectancy in Greater Manchester due to the pandemic.
That pattern of "deeply entrenched" deprivation and ill-health stretches back at least 170 years, according to the chief medical officer for England.
"If you had a map of Covid's biggest effects now and a map of child deaths in 1850, they look remarkably similar," Prof Chris Whitty told an NHS conference in June.
Experts say the problems of crowded housing, insecure work and poor underlying health are echoing down the centuries.