Jake Scott, MD

This claim about the Amish deserves correction with actual data. 🧵

2/ Research shows that many Amish families do vaccinate their children. Studies find that anywhere from 41% to 85% of Amish parents have vaccinated at least some of their children, depending on the community and time period.

3/ The historical record also tells a very different story about health outcomes. The last U.S. polio outbreak, in 1979, occurred in unvaccinated Amish communities and resulted in 15 cases, including 10 with paralysis. A 1991 rubella outbreak among the Amish led to at least 10 babies born with congenital rubella syndrome, suffering heart defects, deafness, and blindness. And in 2014, the largest measles outbreak in the U.S. in over two decades infected 383 people, nearly all of them Amish, after unvaccinated missionaries returned from overseas. 

These outbreaks didn’t resolve on their own. They were halted through large-scale emergency vaccination campaigns, often with active participation from Amish leaders and parents once the risks were clearly understood.

4/ As for broader health claims: studies have documented that Amish children do experience autism, diabetes, cancer, and other conditions, refuting the myth of near-perfect health. Where Amish communities show better health outcomes, those advantages are consistently linked to lifestyle factors like physical activity and diet, not vaccine avoidance.

The evidence is clear: Amish communities are not an argument against vaccination. They are a cautionary tale of what happens when vaccine coverage falls too low.

5/ References:

In this survey of one of the world’s largest Amish communities, only 14% of the parents reported that none of their children had received immunizations. https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article-abstract/128/1/79/30323/Underimmunization-in-Ohio-s-Amish-Parental-Fears?redirectedFrom=fulltext

The last U.S. polio outbreak (1979) struck unvaccinated Amish across four states, causing 15 confirmed cases with 10 paralytic. It was halted only after vaccinating about half of the entire U.S. Amish population.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00050435.htm

A 1988 measles outbreak in Pennsylvania infected 130 people in a ‘predominantly unvaccinated and susceptible Amish population,’ spreading across four counties after starting in public schools.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30119502

A 1991 rubella outbreak across six states led to 15% of Amish infants being born with congenital rubella syndrome—causing heart defects, deafness, and blindness—while no non-Amish infants were affected. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00017145.htm#:~:text=The%20outcome%20of%20pregnancy%20was,mother%20was%20a%20conservative%20Mennonite

In 2014, the largest U.S. measles outbreak in over 20 years infected 383 people—99% of them Amish—after unvaccinated missionaries returned from the Philippines. With only 14% vaccination coverage in affected Amish households, it required vaccinating over 10,000 people to stop the spread. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27705270/