You can run a SAS model anywhere. Their job is not to go door to door, checking up on COVID patients, their job is to sift through aggregate data to mathematically establish trends using stat equations that account for all the complex variables to account for and eliminate "correlation is not equal to causation" fallacies with hard facts (math). 1,000 people is considered a small sample size. It's like saying that accountants should be working on the factory floor more, and whereas I'm sure a few field trips are great for perspective, their job is at the strategic level, not the tactical level.