COVID-19 Growth in Rural versus Urban Counties with Major Universities at the Start of the 2020 Academic Year

  1. Mike Penuliar
  2. Candice Clark
  3. Debbie Curti
  4. Cathy Hudson
  5. Billy Philips

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Abstract

Universities play a central role in a rural or small town’s economy. They are often the main forms of enrichment to the lives of the longtime residents, the students, and the employees. Unfortunately, during a global pandemic, the migration and movement of young people in these communities can likely cause a rapid infection spike and drive spread easily, especially relative to larger urban areas. The current study investigates the relationship between COVID-19 case growth, university-county rurality, and time at the beginning of the Fall 2020 academic semester. Findings showed that small metro and non-metro counties with universities had a dramatic infection spike near the beginning of the semester and infection growth remained significantly higher than their large and medium metro counterparts for the duration of the study. Suggestions to slow the spread in rural communities are discussed.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.11.25.20238642: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.11.25.20238642v1 on medRxiv