This is a rural v Metro issue that has been occurring across the country. For the most part when talking people, Chicagoland (10M people) is the bulk of Illinois (12.7M people), but land mass wise it's not. If you were to draw a red blue congressional district map the state would look red, but since the vast majority of the population takes up residence in the small northeastern lakeside part of the State it's a blue State.This whole article is literal insanity:
Rural Counties Consider an Alternative Type of Social Distancing — Kicking Chicago Out of Illinois
Minnesota outside of the Twin City Metro is similar although not quite as severely lopsided population wise (yet...).
The more rural the area is the more difficult it is to see why shit is shut down. Essentially they have a small Main St that's closed, Walmart has reduced hours, and their kids are locked out of school, but their Covid 19 cases are very low and it just doesn't add up when your vision is limited. That is until the cases pop up in the next county over or in their own town. Then it's already too late and the lock-downs were not thorough enough...