Making hay was more than a figure of speech last week at the New Holland auction house in Pennsylvania last week, where a ton of top quality hay bales were going for upwards of $400, up about 20% from last year.
asserted
ton → make → 400
For members of the Lancaster settlement, a term used to describe the Amish population that settled here in 1760, the price of hay was only part of the discussion: the price of horses, donkeys and milk were also topics of conversation and, as it has been for year or more, a potentially deadly outbreak of measles.
In the most recent count, 1,398 cases had been detected, according to the Pennsylvania department of health.
uncertain
cases → use → health
Since 1 August, 150,000 doses of MMR vaccine had been administered, with more than 50,000 given in October alone.
asserted
50,000 → administer → October
The outbreak, and the politics surrounding it under Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary, has focused on Lancaster county, placing the Amish under a spotlight.
asserted
outbreak → surround → spotlight
While there is no Amish religious opposition to vaccines broadly, a study found that that less that a third of Amish residents had been immunized against measles, mumps and rubella.
asserted
third → be → measles
“It wasn’t that way 50 years ago in our community,” said Christ Stoltzfoos, standing outside a barn of horses, miniature ponies and donkeys that were also up for auction.
asserted
that → say → auction
But Stoltzfoos didn’t have a ready explanation for why vaccinations had lapsed in the community, which is descended from German-speaking religious conservatives and where the modern world is largely kept at bay.
asserted
world → have → bay
All of his immediate family had been vaccinated, and had not got sick, but some cousins weren’t and did, Stoltzfoos said.
asserted
Stoltzfoos → vaccinate → family
“I guess you don’t get to change anybody’s mind.
asserted
you → guess → mind
The people that changed their mind are the people who got really sick from it.
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who → change → it
They say now they would have gotten vaccinated.
asserted
they → say → ?
But the people that didn’t really get sick, they still say: ‘Oh, it’s not really that bad.’”
asserted
it → get → people
The attention the Amish have received while experiencing the worst outbreak in the nation has not always been welcome.
asserted
Amish → receive → nation
But the state, under Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor, has mounted an intensive outreach of pop-up clinics and mailings to encourage the community to get protection.
asserted
state → mount → protection
The Lancaster settlement depends in large part on tourism, with coach loads of visitors stopping to by shoofly pie and other Amish delicacies.
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loads → depend → pie
Still, almost two-thirds of measles cases in Pennsylvania have been among adults, a mirror opposite of how measles is typically transmitted.
asserted
measles → transmit → adults
All five of the Pennsylvania mortalities involved people who were unvaccinated by choice or because they were too young to receive it, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
uncertain
they → involve → Inquirer
But within the Lancaster community, vaccines don’t necessarily carry the politicization of the “English” world.
asserted
vaccines → carry → world
“A lot of people now get the shots,” Stoltzfoos said.
asserted
Stoltzfoos → get → shots
Nearby, John Kaufman, 81, was operating from a different playbook.
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Kaufman → operate → playbook
He said the vaccine was hard on the immune system.
asserted
vaccine → say → system
“You get the measles and you get over it.
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you → get → it
People have it once, and it’s over.
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it → have → it
But if you hurt your immune system with the shots, something else will creep up on.
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something → hurt → shots
The shot will take care of the measles, but it’ll stir something else up.
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it → take → something
He pointed to reports that Covid shots had been linked to heart attacks and, he said, cancer: “If you’re strong and healthy you might be able to work the Covid shot off.
uncertain
you → point → shot
But if you had a weakness in yourself, it could take over.”
uncertain
it → have → yourself
Anna, a young woman at the auction, also said she had had measles.
asserted
she → say → measles
“It was miserable,” she said.
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she → say → ?
“My whole family had it, except my dad.
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family → have → dad
He got the vaccine.
asserted
He → get → vaccine
I wouldn’t get the vaccine now because if you had measles, you’re stronger for it.
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you → get → it
Thinking around the measles vaccine in the community is in some ways a reflection of thinking in the “English” world beyond, where health authorities are battling outbreaks in South Carolina and Texas for much of the last year.
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authorities → think → year
But those outbreaks primarily affect children.
asserted
outbreaks → affect → children
Pennsylvania has recorded five measles-associated deaths (including two infants and three adults with underlying health conditions), but those numbers are not reflected in CDC data, which records three deaths nationwide of 4,588 confirmed cases in 2026.
asserted
which → record → 2026
This month Kennedy, who heads the vaccine-skeptic Maha movement, claimed that the “people of Pennsylvania suffered” because Shapiro’s administration politicized the state’s measles outbreak.
asserted
administration → head → outbreak
Kennedy said that a “global measles outbreak” had been caused by decline in the number of people receiving the measles vaccine during Covid.
asserted
outbreak → say → Covid
Pennsylvania, which has 27% of US cases, had only begun applying for CDC emergency assistance in September.
asserted
which → have → September
But Shapiro claimed that the CDC would not correctly acknowledge the measles-related deaths “because it doesn’t fit their phony narrative.
asserted
it → claim → narrative
I think RFK is doing great destruction in this country by stoking this vaccine skepticism.”
asserted
RFK → think → skepticism
…and 30 more, not listed.
The Aporia
