Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Corona Virus in a Small Georgia City

Home
Share
0
Skip to main content

A funeral is thought to have sparked a covid-19 outbreak in Albany, Ga. — and led to many more funerals
As coronavirus tears through rural Georgia, a small city asks: 'Why here? Why us?'
0:01 / 4:41
mute
cc disabled
The city of Albany in southwest Georgia has become an unlikely coronavirus hotspot, leaving the local hospital scrambling to provide care. (Lee Powell/The Washington Post)
By Haisten Willis and
Vanessa Williams
April 4, 2020 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
ALBANY, Ga. — People have largely abandoned the streets of this midsize city in southwest Georgia, which has garnered unwanted attention for leading the state in covid-19 deaths and having one of the highest infection rates in the country. But this past week, a few locals ventured out anyway to pay tribute to a community icon.


The outbreak in Dougherty County has largely been attributed to a funeral in late February that drew more than 100 mourners, including a man from Atlanta who died a few days after the services. Soon, relatives and friends who went to the wake fell ill, as did employees of the funeral home and worshipers at the church where the service was held.

The novel coronavirus quickly overwhelmed Albany, and, as of Friday, the county of 90,000 had seven more deaths than Fulton County, which includes the city of Atlanta and more than a million residents. So far, 521 people in Dougherty have tested positive for the virus, second in the state behind Fulton’s 747 confirmed cases.

Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.


Black people account for “90 percent or better” of the Dougherty County deaths, said county coroner Michael Fowler. The dead range in age from 42 to 80, averaging about 60 years old. Fowler added, “Most of them had underlying conditions — diabetes, COPD [a lung disease], cancer, AIDS — all of these underlying conditions compromised their immune systems.”

Why dey do dis to us? We dindu nuffin. Bix nood.

This virus is a racist thing. White peoples get just enough, so it’s not so obvious.

hopefully it was honest ignorance, not willful bliss...the virus doesn't care either way

Seeing as the funeral was in February, before many took this seriously, I'd go with "honest ignorance". Hell, there's still some here who aren't taking it seriously!

there's honest ignorance and foolish ignorance

You forgot blissful ignorance....

Most cases arose from attendees a two funerals and a fish fry. 70% of the roughly 90k population is black. I expect 30k people to be exposed/infected, most of them with minor symptoms.

Race aside my prayers are with that community and all who are suffering from this. Nobody deserves this

I only mentioned race o give context to the spread. The black community is highly interconnected in small southern cities. The combination of the funerals and the fish fry means hundreds possibly exposed in the early days. Combine that with limited major employers ( a brewery and a USMC logistics base come to mind) and you have the potential for wholesale infection.

A demographic that doesn't think any rules apply to them, actually has to follow some rules. And they won't . That same demographic tends to be unhealthy and obese. Same underlying problem though. There is a problem in that culture, with doing things the way they are supposed to do things .

I wish them well down there...

lived there when I was in the second grade...my dad was stationed at the military base when it belonged to the Air Force..
Turner AFB..

even tho I was only 7, I recall not being too impressed with it..

once again, I wish them well..

Yet that same factor is appearing in many cities across the entire US, not just the “highly interconnected” small southern cities.

It also spans viruses. If you go to some parts of Africa, one in 4 people who walk by you are HIV+.

The people pretending these outcomes are due to anything other than the choices black people make are doing no one any favors. They are promoting White guilt and telling us the only way to make this right is to give our resources to them. That won’t help those people, it never has, it will only hurt us, which is the actual goal here.

Race is an important factor, you shouldn’t feel self conscious about mentioning it.

Low education levels and standards knows no racial boundaries.
Gov't education is a failure.

And just plain ignorant ignorance 😮

All those stats are great. But..

Do they know how many NYC folks "drove straight through" to get to Albany, GA?

Just wonderin'.