Ruth Lapp said she always let her babies crawl on the floor when they were young. And when her children complain of a sore throat, she gives them a spoonful of vinegar, a remedy she says could cure any infection.

She believes this "priming" of the immune system, makes the Amish less susceptible to a major health outbreak.

That's why Lapp, an Amish wife and mother living on a farm in Paradise, Pennsylvania, is calm as she talks about the novel coronavirus. It’s not something that is on her mind much, she said — a statement that contrasts sharply with the rest of Pennsylvanians amid the governor’s sweeping shutdown of businesses and state services.

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When asked how the Amish community is responding to the recent outbreak — the hysteria even — she replied: "How should we be responding?"

And when asked how she’s monitoring her own family for the symptoms of the virus, she laughed: "What are the symptoms?"

"It’s important that your body fights on its own…most of the time it can fight its own things," Lapp said. "And it’s not that we’re against doctors, but we try to take care of ourselves first. If we go to the hospital, we would probably be exposed to more germs."

But Lapp's statements have no medical backing and her claims are not supported by science. Rather, she said, she's trusting in God.

In a letter sent to the staff of Central Pennsylvania Clinic, Mark Anthony Peachey, who serves as the charitable gift fund caseworker for the Anabaptist Foundation, expressed a similar sentiment.

He wrote:

"During this uncertain time we are living in I’m thankful that we have a God that we can fully trust if we choose to do so. We do not need to live in fear of COVID19. We need to fear God. COVID19 is possibly a mercy from God to help people think about death and whether they are ready or not to meet him."

By Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. death toll had reached 115 and the worldwide death toll topped 8,700. So whether they believe this is in God's plan or not, health experts want the Amish to be informed and proactive during this health crisis.

Coronavirus in PA:Pa. reports its first death related to the coronavirus

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'We’re probably not as scared'

The Amish and Mennonite are closely related religious sects typically living in close-knit farming communities that shun modern technology, most commonly identified with horse-drawn buggy sightings alongside Pennsylvania’s roadways.

Most live in rural pockets of Lancaster County — home to about 34,000 Amish and several thousand Mennonites — but others reside in towns along Dauphin or York counties.

The community’s cultural understanding of what it means to be healthy is a bit different than the English community, said Steven Nolt, professor of history and Anabaptist studies at Elizabethtown College in Lancaster County.

"The Amish view health as 'Can I do my job? Can I get up in the morning and work?'" Nolt said. And with that perspective, preventive medicine can take a back seat. "The Amish value tradition too and that can trump the authority of modern medicine or the claims of science."

But is tradition important now that the nation is dealing with the worldwide COVID-19 infection?

Mrs. Stoltzfus, an Amish housewife who preferred to be identified only by her last name, said her community is well aware of the pandemic — "But we’re probably not as scared."

"We aren’t watching the news all day like everyone else, so I would say we aren’t as spooked by the coronavirus," Stoltzfus said. "Sure, I’ve been telling my children to wash their hands more with soap, but we’re not constantly being reminded of it. And I think we’re less likely to come into contact with it in our communities."

You can’t rely on that ideology alone, said D. Holmes Morton, a pediatrician and researcher known for his work with the Amish and Mennonite communities. He also operates the Central Pennsylvania Clinic in Belleville focused on treating rare genetic diseases among Plain sect people.

Aren’t the Amish already in isolation?

It is true though that Amish families are exposed to fewer households than English families, Nolt said.

A typical Amish school has an enrollment of only about 30 children, he said, and older Amish adults don’t live in nursing homes or retirement centers, which has been a heightened concern for public health officials.

But in Lancaster, and surrounding York and Dauphin counties, Nolt said Amish folks are not particularly isolated any more than most rural residents. They have business and neighborly interactions on a daily basis.

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"Think of the Shrewsbury Farmers Market along I-83 in southern York County," he noted. "The many Amish stand holders there are rubbing shoulders with community customers every day the market is open. The same goes for Amish shop owners in Lancaster, or the young women who work as waitresses in restaurants."

Just last week — ignoring the warnings of state and local officials — the Gordonville Fire and EMS Company held their annual two-day "Mud Sale," a place where hundreds of Amish and non-Amish gather to bid on goods such as farm equipment, quilts, horses, furniture and wagon wheels.

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The Paradise Township Board of Supervisors issued a statement "strongly encouraging" the event not be held, specifically citing concern for Amish and Mennonite families, who live in close proximity to one another and have limited information about the coronavirus.

But the fire company proceeded with the sale, saying that canceling the event would have crippled its operations for the upcoming year. However, they did promise to distribute informational pamphlets about COVID-19 to attendees.

"[It] gives us a great feeling knowing we are going to be educating potentially hundreds or thousands of people that attend — specifically from our Plain community who attend," the fire company noted in a statement.

And that’s the real issue, Nolt said: educating this community.

Resistance to medical care

Public-health officials have spent recent weeks educating Mennonite and Amish communities about the new coronavirus, trying to provide the communities with information about symptoms and preventive measures.

WellSpan Health said they were mailing information packets to church leaders with coronavirus facts from WellSpan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the state Department of Health.

And Morton issued an alert published in a Mennonite, Amish newsletter he distributes to church communities across central Pennsylvania.

"As typical English people would, the Amish don’t run to the doctor right when there is pain," Morton said.

While the current coronavirus outbreak hasn't hit Pennsylvania’s Amish and Mennonite communities, their ignorance to the situation alone could put them at risk, he said.

"They won’t be concerned about the coronavirus until someone is infected with it," Morton said "It was the same with rubella, and polio and the measles. Once there’s an outbreak in their community, they get concerned."

But COVID-19 is different. Its symptoms too closely resemble the flu, and although influenza infects and kills far more people each year than COVID-19 has thus far, neither a vaccine against it nor a treatment for it yet exists.

"You can’t just tell or hope or guess that the cough someone has is a cold or the flu," Morton said. "They need to go to a physician so we can test them and give them advice about care. But the Amish are not going to do that unless we talk to them first — it begins with us reaching out to them."