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Pennsylvania’s Amish community may have already reached Covid-19 herd immunity
NOQ Report ^ | 03/31/2021

Posted on 03/31/2021 8:27:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind



Sometimes, it seems like the last thing public health officials want is to see American return to “normal”, which is perhaps why the head of the CDC unleashed an unhinged, paranoid rand on the American people earlier today.

One month ago, speculation abounded about whether 7 US states might be close to the herd immunity threshold.


Now, local public health officials are speculating about whether Pennsylvania’s famous Amish and Mennonite communities living in Lancaster County have achieved herd immunity.

According to the New York Post, the administrator of a medical center in the heart of Lancaster County’s New Holland Borough has estimated that as many as 90% of the families in the community have had at least one family member infected. And that means practically everybody has been exposed to the virus.

“So, you would think if COVID was as contagious as they say, it would go through like a tsunami; and it did,” said Allen Hoover, an administrator of the Parochial Medical Center.

The center caters to the Amish and has more than 33K patients. While both communities initially complied with the stay at home orders, they reopened churches last spring, where they went back to sharing communion cops and “holy kisses” (described as a special church greeting).

As the virus tore through the community over the summer, by August, the area was reporting daily positivity rates (the share of those tested who test positive) north of 20%. Cases ebbed headed into the fall, but soon started to climb again as the weather turned colder.

Over the past 6 weeks, the parochial medical center hasn’t reported a single case of COVID. Eric Lofgren, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Washington State University, said herd immunity is possible but rare. “It would be the first general population in the United States that’s done it,” Lofgren said.

But although this truism has been widely quoted in the US media, we’d advise readers to remember that the exact threshold for herd immunity isn’t clear. Analysts at Goldman have predicted that most advanced economies will reach herd immunity by the beginning of Q3.

Others warned that previous infections might not protect patients from mutant COVID variants.

The only way to be 100% certain that a community has herd immunity is to vaccinate everybody, including children (the first vaccine trials for children, including young infants, have started as Pfizer tests the jab on children 11 and younger).

And even after that, we still won’t be sure.



TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: amish; coronavirus; herdimmunity; pennsylvania
Here's the question though: That's NATURAL HERD IMMUNITY. How long does this last? Six months? What happens to them after that? What happens if a new variant comes around?

Any knowledgeable medical expert in FR care to comment?

1 posted on 03/31/2021 8:27:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

The states that have stayed closed up are the only ones that have not reached it.


2 posted on 03/31/2021 8:28:27 AM PDT by glimmerman70
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To: SeekAndFind
What happens when a NEW variant of FLU comes around???
How long does the CV19 VACC last?? 6mos?

EITHER we either GET BUSY LIVIN or GET BUSY DYIN...it's up to US.

3 posted on 03/31/2021 8:30:09 AM PDT by Paul46360 (What??ME worry?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Of course everyone’s heard the Amish fellow’s response when asked why the China flu hadn’t much effect in his community. “We don’t have TVs.”


4 posted on 03/31/2021 8:30:48 AM PDT by Blurb2350 (posted from my 1500-watt blow dryer)
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To: SeekAndFind
as many as 90% of the families in the community have had at least one family member infected. And that means practically everybody has been exposed to the virus.

How many dead Amish are we talking about? Are there bodies everywhere?

5 posted on 03/31/2021 8:30:57 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("I see you did something -- why you so racist?")
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To: ClearCase_guy

Amish or “Amish”? The “Amish” have more dead bodies than we care to count and producing more every hour.


6 posted on 03/31/2021 8:33:26 AM PDT by NohSpinZone (First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers)
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To: ClearCase_guy

RE: How many dead Amish are we talking about?

If you read the article, it says less than a dozen. The Amish are about 8% of Lancaster County which has about 550,000 inhabitants. You can do the math in terms of percentage.


7 posted on 03/31/2021 8:49:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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How do they have time to get immunity, according to freepers they are personally responsible for nearly all crime


8 posted on 03/31/2021 8:51:47 AM PDT by dsrtsage (Complexity is merely simplicity lacking imagination)
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To: SeekAndFind

I guess there’s something to be said for the Amish practice of “bundling”.


9 posted on 03/31/2021 9:01:27 AM PDT by moovova (Yo GOP....we won't forget.)
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To: Paul46360

A nation of cowards, including many FReepers.


10 posted on 03/31/2021 9:02:27 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: NohSpinZone

There are “Amish” Amish, BTW


11 posted on 03/31/2021 9:09:13 AM PDT by kaktuskid
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To: SeekAndFind

There are probably not a lot of obese Amish folks.
They actually do physical labor in some way either in an agricultural way or build things like sheds, furniture, etc.
We sell many Amish shed builders.

In addition, they do not eat much in the way of prepared foods. So, the sugar and sodium intake is much lower than the average American.

They probably also do not suffer from sleep problems because of their physical labor and lack of addiction to electronic devises. Not a lot of Snap Chat and Instagram in their community.

We could learn a lot from the Amish.


12 posted on 03/31/2021 9:30:47 AM PDT by woodbutcher1963
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To: SeekAndFind
Notice one word missing from this article? "DEATHS." Gee, I wonder why. Perhaps because the Amish aren't as unhealthy as so many other Americans and have no more to fear from Covid than from any other virus.

80% of those hospitalized in the US were obese. Nuff said.

13 posted on 03/31/2021 9:32:23 AM PDT by montag813 ("Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the Great")
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To: SeekAndFind

herd of sheeple


14 posted on 03/31/2021 9:33:19 AM PDT by bgill
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To: SeekAndFind

Looks like the virus is 99.9998% survivable to the Amish. Looks like not having TV or Vaccines has been a blessing to them! God Bless Em!


15 posted on 03/31/2021 9:34:46 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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