Interplay of demographics, geography and COVID-19 pandemic responses in the Puget Sound region: The Vashon, Washington Medical Reserve Corps experience.

While the overall magnitude of the pre-Omicron COVID-19 pandemic in rural and urban U.S. communities was similar, we show that island communities in the Puget Sound region were substantially protected from COVID-19 by their geography. We further show that a volunteer community-based COVID-19 response program was highly effective in the Vashon community, augmenting the protective effect of geography. We suggest that Medical Reserve Corps should be an important element of future pandemic planning.