00:02We've seen increasing cases of measles in Lancaster County specifically since
00:08about March or April. You look at the Pennsylvania map for sure and the
00:11national map you know we're sort of the hotspot in Lancaster County and so we've
00:15just seen more and more cases underreported for sure of measles and so
00:20unfortunately since that time you know things haven't gotten any better in
00:23Lancaster County or really in central Pennsylvania. There was a time in probably
00:28the early 2000s where our vaccination rate was anywhere between you know 98.5% to
00:3699.2 or 3% vaccinated overall as a county and then I would say you know during
00:43COVID time and after that that we've seen more of a decrease in certain pockets of
00:48people that did not get vaccinated.
00:58In and around Lancaster County there are about 45,000 Old Order Amish people that
01:03includes adults and children. There are approximately 6,000 Old Order Mennonites
01:08that live in this area.
01:10Attitudes among plain churches with regard to vaccination are quite varied. There is no
01:16theological or religious objection to vaccination among these groups and
01:21never has been. Nonetheless I think it's fair to say that historically these are
01:25populations that have been often quite under immunized. There has always been
01:31people in our community and it's not just the plain community it is really
01:35people that have chosen to believe that the vaccine is not safe and then do not
01:41get vaccinated and unfortunately the plain community is a group of people that
01:46have limited access to information compared to what you know the English
01:50community which would be anyone that's not Amish and that's a key piece to you
01:54know understanding and knowing that the vaccine is safe and that they could and
01:58should get vaccinated with it. And Lancaster County is the largest county in the
02:02state that does not have a health department. We have a little over 560,000
02:07people. I do feel that that this measles outbreak would be different if we had a
02:11local health department.
02:13We're not doing a good job preventing measles because patients aren't getting
02:18vaccinated, kids aren't getting vaccinated and that's happening in a
02:21variety of communities in this county and in other counties. I don't think it's
02:25related to a people group, a culture, a religion. I think it's something that
02:29we're all you know responsible for.
