Some Pennsylvania Amish communities are showing greater openness to measles vaccination
Some Amish communities in Pennsylvania are becoming more receptive to measles vaccination amid the outbreak, the Associated Press reported. Local clinics have delivered hundreds of MMR shots, and some Amish farmers are getting vaccinated. Lancaster County accounts for more than a third of Pennsylvania’s 1,350-plus measles cases this year, with at least three related deaths there.
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Some Amish communities in Pennsylvania are showing greater openness to measles vaccination as an outbreak spreads, according to an Associated Press report. Local clinics have delivered hundreds of MMR shots, some Amish farmers are getting vaccinated, and non-Amish families are vaccinating infants earlier than usual. Lancaster County, home to Pennsylvania’s largest Amish community, has seen over a third of the state’s 1,350-plus measles cases this year and at least three related deaths. Vaccination has long been spotty among “Plain” communities, more out of tradition than theology, a Mennonite leader said, recalling: “We never did before, and we came through all right.” Amish and conservative Mennonites shop, work and attend school alongside their “English” neighbors, making it impossible to contain the highly contagious virus within their communities alone. Public health experts warn that childhood vaccination rates have fallen across central Pennsylvania.
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Newser reports that some in Pennsylvania’s Amish community are shifting toward openness to vaccines amid the measles surge, supporting the proposed event. Its story attributes the reporting to AP, and no separate independent report is included.