Mifflin has one of the highest COVID death rates among U.S. counties with at least 40,000 people, according to government data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
She’d seen many people in McVeytown, her rural hamlet in central Pennsylvania, get infected yet recover within a few days. She did not get vaccinated because she worried about how a new vaccine, developed in record time, might affect her heart condition.
Mifflin has one of the highest COVID death rates among U.S. counties with at least 40,000 people, according tocompiled by Johns Hopkins University — 598 deaths per 100,000 residents as of mid-March, compared with 298 deaths nationally. Mifflin County offers a snapshot into how one hard-hit community moved from skepticism about the scientific reality of the COVID virus, and then about the vaccine, to coping with unbearable loss and processing the trauma. Roughly 8 in 10 deaths nationwide from April to December 2021 were among the unvaccinated, according to the latest analysis of data from 23 states and New York City and Seattle by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As elsewhere in the country, Mifflin County has seen COVID cases fall dramatically since January. It’s unusual to see anyone wearing masks. Health experts point to several factors behind Mifflin County’s high death rate:The prominent Amish and Mennonite populations; Amish people make up over 8% of county residents. Members of those communities largely did not get vaccinated and often gathered for large weddings and funerals during the last two years, according to county officials.
“It’s been hard for those who have lost loved ones, and that pain never goes away,” said Bargo, who has been mayor for 15 years. “But, economically, we’ve bounced back.” Wise said Lisa likely caught the virus from him after he was infected in October. “She had no regrets about not being vaccinated,” Wise said. “She thought she would pull through.”
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