Is This The First Community To Reach Herd Immunity From COVID-19?
William Thomas Cain/Getty Images By Hope Ngo/March 31, 2021 1:01 pm EST
When COVID-19 spun out of control to become a pandemic in March 2020, there was some concern that the country’s Amish and Mennonite communities, located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, were particularly vulnerable to the disease because of the more archaic way with which they viewed illness as a whole. As Ruth Lapp, one Amish mother, told the York Daily Record: “It’s important that your body fights on its own… most of the time it can fight its own things. And it’s not that we’re against doctors, but we try to take care of ourselves first,” she said. “If we go to the hospital, we would probably be exposed to more germs.”
So perhaps it should come as no surprise that these communities were brought to their knees when COVID-19 swept through the country. Medical experts estimate that around 90 percent of Amish community families may have had at least one family member who has had the illness, which didn’t exactly surprise the Amish and Mennonites themselves. “So, you would think if COVID was as contagious as they say, it would go through like a tsunami; and it did,” Allen Hoover, administrator of the Parochial Medical Center and an Old Order Mennonite says (via The News&Observer).
Safety precautions have been relaxed in these communities
Michael Brennan/Getty Images
Because the rates of infection for the Mennonite and the Amish communities were so high, there is a belief that the groups could have done what no other communities in the country have been able to do: that is, achieve a level of herd immunity against the COVID-19 virus. Unfortunately, this has not only led most members of the communities to relax prevention measures, like mask-wearing and social distancing, but it has also given them reason to think that vaccinations are not necessary.
Health experts worry that this way of thinking could be problematic because even if they did achieve herd immunity, the Amish and Mennonite communities’ exposures to past infections only gives them antibodies with a limited amount of protection (via Associated Press). University of California, Riverside professor of biomedical sciences David Lo says: “You can have a long period where you think everything is OK, but you have this whole population that’s susceptible, all it takes is one person who’s contagious to give you this sudden outbreak.”
Is This The First Community To Reach Herd Immunity From COVID-19?
William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
By Hope Ngo/March 31, 2021 1:01 pm EST
When COVID-19 spun out of control to become a pandemic in March 2020, there was some concern that the country’s Amish and Mennonite communities, located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, were particularly vulnerable to the disease because of the more archaic way with which they viewed illness as a whole. As Ruth Lapp, one Amish mother, told the York Daily Record: “It’s important that your body fights on its own… most of the time it can fight its own things. And it’s not that we’re against doctors, but we try to take care of ourselves first,” she said. “If we go to the hospital, we would probably be exposed to more germs.”
So perhaps it should come as no surprise that these communities were brought to their knees when COVID-19 swept through the country. Medical experts estimate that around 90 percent of Amish community families may have had at least one family member who has had the illness, which didn’t exactly surprise the Amish and Mennonites themselves. “So, you would think if COVID was as contagious as they say, it would go through like a tsunami; and it did,” Allen Hoover, administrator of the Parochial Medical Center and an Old Order Mennonite says (via The News&Observer).
So perhaps it should come as no surprise that these communities were brought to their knees when COVID-19 swept through the country. Medical experts estimate that around 90 percent of Amish community families may have had at least one family member who has had the illness, which didn’t exactly surprise the Amish and Mennonites themselves. “So, you would think if COVID was as contagious as they say, it would go through like a tsunami; and it did,” Allen Hoover, administrator of the Parochial Medical Center and an Old Order Mennonite says (via The News&Observer).
Safety precautions have been relaxed in these communities
Michael Brennan/Getty Images
Because the rates of infection for the Mennonite and the Amish communities were so high, there is a belief that the groups could have done what no other communities in the country have been able to do: that is, achieve a level of herd immunity against the COVID-19 virus. Unfortunately, this has not only led most members of the communities to relax prevention measures, like mask-wearing and social distancing, but it has also given them reason to think that vaccinations are not necessary.
Health experts worry that this way of thinking could be problematic because even if they did achieve herd immunity, the Amish and Mennonite communities’ exposures to past infections only gives them antibodies with a limited amount of protection (via Associated Press). University of California, Riverside professor of biomedical sciences David Lo says: “You can have a long period where you think everything is OK, but you have this whole population that’s susceptible, all it takes is one person who’s contagious to give you this sudden outbreak.”
Health experts worry that this way of thinking could be problematic because even if they did achieve herd immunity, the Amish and Mennonite communities’ exposures to past infections only gives them antibodies with a limited amount of protection (via Associated Press). University of California, Riverside professor of biomedical sciences David Lo says: “You can have a long period where you think everything is OK, but you have this whole population that’s susceptible, all it takes is one person who’s contagious to give you this sudden outbreak.”
Herd immunity without vaccination is not possible
Bloomberg/Getty Images
