For the last few months, Dale Weiser's phone number has been spreading almost as fast as measles. Weiser is the clinical services supervisor for the Chester County Health Department in south-central Pennsylvania, and since August she has been driving out to Amish homes to vaccinate people, NPR reported.
"I was at a house, like, at 4:30 in the afternoon, and I had a phone call at 8 the next morning saying, 'hey, I heard you were down the street. Can you come do that at my house?'" she said of a typical request. So far, she has administered more than 400 doses of the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine in Amish homes.
The house calls are part of Pennsylvania's strategy to fight measles by flipping traditional public health messaging. Instead of advertising vaccinations loudly, health officials have launched a quiet word-of-mouth campaign designed to win the trust of the state's Amish community, which has been particularly hard hit by the country's worst measles outbreak in 35 years. The state has confirmed six measles-related deaths and more than 1,500 cases so far, though the true count is likely much higher, since many people who get sick do not seek medical care, NPR reported.
A family choice, not a religious ban
Surveys suggest only about a third of Amish families in the region vaccinate their children, leaving the community especially vulnerable to one of the most contagious diseases. There is no religious edict against vaccination among the Amish. It is seen as a family and individual choice, Weiser said, often driven by practical and cultural factors. "They don't have health insurance. They're not interacting with the mainstream medical society. And measles wasn't a problem for 30 years, so there was no real risk to not being vaccinated, at least for measles," she said.
As cases have piled up, Weiser said many Amish families have changed their minds about getting the MMR vaccine. When they do, she brings the shots to them. "When I arrive at their home, there's usually a small child that will run from the back of the house to the barn to tell the men that there's somebody strange in the driveway, or that the nurse is here," she said.
Some days she vaccinates a single family in their kitchen. Other times, dozens of people are gathered to get the shot. She has fielded questions about what is in the vaccine and about side effects, and she was caught off guard when she was asked if there were tracking chips in the vaccine. "Whoa. Flashback to COVID. Where did you hear that?" she recalled. As with the general population, vaccine misinformation has made its way to the Amish community, and when she encounters it, she takes the time to explain why the rumors are false, NPR reported.
The approach is slow, personal, and built on neighbors talking to neighbors. In a community that does not always meet the medical system halfway, Weiser is meeting it in the kitchen.