Lancaster County Measles Outbreak Changes Midwife’s View on Vaccines
An ongoing measles outbreak in Lancaster County has prompted a Pennsylvania midwife who once chose not to vaccinate her son to rethink her position on immunization, NBC News reported.
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Key Clinical Takeaways:
- Traditional midwives in most states, including Pennsylvania, are legally barred from administering vaccines without a doctor’s backing.
- Pennsylvania health officials recently reported at least two baby deaths and invited midwives to a measles education webinar.
- Measles vaccination rates have dropped below herd immunity thresholds across 75% of U.S. counties and jurisdictions for the 2025-26 school year.
Midwives facing the virus in Lancaster County
Roberta Devers, a 63-year-old midwife with a 38-year career, said she has delivered nearly 2,000 babies and has cared for dozens of pregnant women with the virus since it began spreading rapidly in the rural Pennsylvania county in April. When Devers examined a pregnant Amish woman in her third trimester this week, the patient had recently had measles.
“Every single day,” Devers told NBC News, “someone’s calling to ask what they do. They’re pregnant and they’ve gotten it, or their babies have gotten it.” “People ask me, 'Do you have that vaccine in the car?'” Roberta Devers told NBC News.
State law currently prohibits traditional midwives from giving vaccines without a doctor’s backing. However, New York recently declared a disaster emergency allowing certain unlicensed practitioners and midwives to administer vaccines, a step public health officials suggest could help mitigate spread in rural communities, especially those religious and distrustful of government.
Hospitalizations and herd immunity gaps
In pediatric hospitals, physicians are confronting severe manifestations of the disease. “Babies gasping for air, children needing oxygen and respiratory support, patients on ventilators. We see babies and children coming in with infections of organs within the abdomen, their liver, dehydration, babies that can’t take bottles,” said Dr. Evan Shirey, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Penn State Health Golisano Children’s Hospital in Hershey.
Shirey also said that some children are developing brain inflammation known as encephalitis, which can take months to resolve or remain irreversible. At least two babies in Pennsylvania have died from the outbreak. Shirey, who has a 3-month-old son too young to receive the measles shot, described the situation as horrifying both as a clinician and a father.
“I'm experiencing the outbreak as a doctor, but I'm also experiencing it as a dad, and I can't protect my baby yet with a vaccine” said Dr. Evan Shirey, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Penn State Health Golisano Children's Hospital in Hershey.
An NBC News and Stanford University data investigation found that measles vaccination rates have dropped across the country, with 75% of U.S. counties and jurisdictions falling below the threshold for herd immunity at the start of the 2025-26 school year, up from 67% in 2024-25. Lancaster County’s MMR vaccination rate stood at 95.5% before the pandemic, which is the level required to prevent an outbreak.
Midwives collaborate with officials to establish vaccination clinics
In Wisconsin, where a baby with measles has died alongside 551 total measles cases as of Wednesday, certified nurse midwife Korina Bauer is collaborating with county public health officials to establish a vaccination clinic for her clients, many of whom are Amish. Bauer is currently counseling two pregnant Amish women whose husbands were exposed to the virus.
Devers said that the Pennsylvania Health Department recently invited her and other midwives to an upcoming measles education webinar. She believes expanding immunization privileges to home birth midwives would offer an additional avenue to vaccinate populations quickly.
“There’s a lot of home birth midwives in the state of Pennsylvania, and if they were given the opportunity to immunize, it would be another opportunity to quickly get people vaccinated,” Devers told NBC News.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for educational and scientific communication purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical condition, diagnosis, or treatment plan.