# What's up with Mississippi? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [March 23, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115 "2020-03-23T19:44:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/1 "2020-03-23T19:44:51Z")
On [this map](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html), other states have large clusters and a few outliers. Not Mississippi. Theirs is a fairly uniform distribution of small infected areas with no large clusters. How come? ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/2 "2020-03-23T19:54:41Z")
That’s basically a population density map they’re showing. Mississippi simply doesn’t have a Birmingham, Memphis, Little Rock, or New Orleans within its borders. You see similar patterns in Vermont and New Hampshire, though overshadowed by the NY/NJ bubbles. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/3 "2020-03-23T19:57:12Z")
I don’t see anything particularly noteworthy about MO, on the map. I am wondering whose bright idea it was to make the clusters and the infection numbers both the same shade of red :smack: ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/4 "2020-03-23T19:57:45Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > That’s basically a population density map they’re showing. Mississippi simply doesn’t have a Birmingham, Memphis, Little Rock, or New Orleans within its borders. You see similar patterns in Vermont and New Hampshire, though overshadowed by the NY/NJ bubbles. That makes sense. No really big towns, and no larger towns close to each other. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/5 "2020-03-23T19:57:53Z")
WAG Mississippi is one of the least populated southern states and its major cities aren’t really that “major.” Its largest city, Jackson (pop. 166,965), is only the 158th largest city in the country, and its 2nd largest city, Gulf Port (pop. 71,822) is less than half the population of that. ---
**Author:** ![GreysonCarlisle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a87d85/32.png) [@GreysonCarlisle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreysonCarlisle)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/6 "2020-03-23T20:02:29Z")
> [@Kovitlac](#): > > I don’t see anything particularly noteworthy about MO, on the map. I am wondering whose bright idea it was to make the clusters and the infection numbers both the same shade of red :smack: Yeah, that’s been driving me nuts, too. Mississippi, not Missouri. Couple of states down. Most noteworthy thing about Missouri is that the I-70 corridor (basically, Kansas City to St. Louis) hasn’t been infected like a string of pearls. ---
**Author:** ![Kovitlac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/2bfe46/32.png) [@Kovitlac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kovitlac)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/7 "2020-03-23T20:11:44Z")
> [@GreysonCarlisle](#): > > Yeah, that’s been driving me nuts, too. > > Mississippi, not Missouri. Couple of states down. Most noteworthy thing about Missouri is that the I-70 corridor (basically, Kansas City to St. Louis) hasn’t been infected like a string of pearls. Bleh, my bad! No wonder I wasn’t noticing anything weird! :smack: for me, this time! EDIT: Okay, now I see. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2020, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/8 "2020-03-23T22:14:09Z")
Yeah, MS doesn’t have much in the way of urban centers. You can see a cluster of bigger bubbles around Jackson, and in the Memphis suburbs, which are the closest things we’ve got. Also, a lot of people don’t have good access to medical care, so the whole state is probably very undertested. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2020, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-mississippi/850115/9 "2020-03-24T14:21:57Z")
[XKCD is prescient](https://xkcd.com/1138/).