Monday, April 6, 2020

Coronavirus in rural America (Part X): Mono County, California

I have already devoted a couple of posts to California's response to the coronavirus, including this post here which addresses a few aspects of what is happening in the Eastern Sierras, in particular Mono County, population 14,202.   Now, I am happy to report that a collaboration of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and the New York Times is going to bring reporting out of all 58 counties of the Golden State.  The New York Times leads today with this story by Annie Berman.  Here's the lede:
For most of the year, about 8,000 people live in Mammoth Lakes, a resort town 7,881 feet high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. At peak ski season, the population triples, a fact normally welcomed by civic leaders. 
But not now. Not when surrounding Mono County has the highest rate of coronavirus infection in the state. Not when the county’s lone hospital has just 17 beds. Not when transferring a patient to another hospital means a special medical evacuation flight at a cost of up to $50,000, and when even this option can be delayed by frequent blizzard conditions. And when the town’s thin air only makes respiratory ailments worse.
The story is well worth a read in its entirety because it reveals so much about rural California, at least a certain variety of the Golden State's rural reaches.  The photos are terrific, too, not to mention the quotes from Dr. Thomas Boo, the county's public health officer, including this one:
I’m absolutely terrified.

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