McVetown, Pa. — Connie Houtz doesn’t think COVID-19 will be so bad.

She had seen many people infected in this rural central Pennsylvania area, but recovered within days. She was not vaccinated because she feared the new vaccine being developed in record time could affect her heart condition.

In October last year, her youngest son, Eric Delamarter, 45, developed a cold chest. She said he put off seeing the doctor because there were customers waiting for him at the shop where he repaired his car. When he eventually went to the emergency room at Geisinger Lewistown Hospital, he was diagnosed with pneumonia and COVID-19.

Within days, Hutz’s eldest son, Toby Dramatt, 50, was also hospitalized with the virus and shortness of breath.

Less than two weeks later, both of her sons died. Neither was vaccinated.

“While it doesn’t seem fair or right, we’ll find out why it happened,” said Houtz, 71, who sat at the kitchen table.

Eric and Toby Delamarter are two of the roughly 300 people who have died from COVID-19 in Mifflin County, where cows and Amish horses and carriages are often seen grazing on pastures. The county 60 miles northwest of Harrisburg is heavily Republican — 77 percent of the 2020 vote went to Donald Trump — and the former president’s downplaying of COVID-19 has found fertile ground there.

Mifflin has one of the highest COVID-19 death rates among U.S. counties of at least 40,000 people, according to data government data Compiled by Johns Hopkins University – As of mid-March, there were 591 deaths per 100,000 residents, compared to 298 nationally.

America is Nearly 1 million dead From COVID-19 — a number few thought possible at the start of the pandemic.

In March 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that “100,000 to 200,000 people” could die from COVID-19, based on modeling at the time about how fast the coronavirus was spreading in the United States.

Reaching 1 million deaths seems even more unlikely when a safe and effective vaccine becomes available listed December 2020. Of the 977,000 deaths, more than 60% occurred after this.

Mifflin County provides a snapshot of how a hard-hit community moved from skepticism about the scientific reality of the COVID-19 virus, then a vaccine, to coping with unbearable loss and dealing with trauma. About eight in 10 deaths nationwide from April 2021 to December 2021 were unvaccinated, according to a new CDC analysis of data from 23 states, as well as New York and Seattle.

Despite a drop in deaths this year, Mifflin County Coroner Daniel Lynch has not overcome the stress of COVID-19. As of mid-March, his office counted 337 COVID-19 deaths in the county, about 60 more than the state’s official tally. That’s because the coroner counted anyone who died in the county, including those who lived in other counties. Of those counted by the coroner, 311 had not even received a single COVID-19 shot. Even with high cases nationally and locally, few residents are wearing masks.

“It was hell,” Lynch said. “I’ve been a coroner since 1996, and I’ve never had a call from a nurse reporting a death, crying on the phone, or a facility reporting two or three deaths at the same time.”

In the county seat of Lewistown, it was easy to find people who knew some of the dead.

On a recent afternoon at the corner lunchbox, all five employees and customers quickly raised their hands when asked if they knew anyone who had been killed by COVID-19. Manager Sheila Saurbeck, 65, said she had lost two friends. She contracted COVID-19 herself last year and recovered within a few weeks.

Behind the counter is owner Lorrie Sirgey, 56. She said she was hospitalized with COVID-19 for four days last spring before getting vaccinated. “It was a scary time,” she said.

Like the rest of the country, Mifflin County has seen a sharp drop in COVID-19 cases since January. It’s unusual to see someone wearing a mask. Health experts point to several factors behind Mifflin County’s high death rate:

• A large elderly population—22% of residents 65 years or older.
• COVID-19 vaccination rates are low (51% of residents are fully vaccinated compared to 63% statewide).
• Notable Amish and Mennonite population; Amish make up more than 8% of the county’s residents. In the past two years, members of these communities have mostly been unvaccinated and have often gathered for large weddings and funerals, according to county officials. The Amish, in particular, have low vaccination rates because they are skeptical of government intervention and rely on family traditions for preventive medicine.

Mifflin County Commissioner Kevin Cordish also blamed politics.

“We are very rural here,” he said. “It’s a lot of support from Republicans and Trump, so people were skeptical about COVID-19 at first because he downplayed the disease. And I think it’s skeptical about vaccines.”

He added that it was incomprehensible that there were so many deaths in a county of about 45,000 people. His 94-year-old mother, who lives in a nursing home, died last year shortly after contracting COVID-19 herself.

Cordish, the only Democrat on the three-county county committee, said COVID-19 has divided communities into people who take the disease seriously and get vaccinated, physical distancing, masks and those who just want to live a normal life.

While COVID-19 has devastated many families, Lewistown’s Republican Mayor Deborah Bargo acknowledged the death toll but focused on how her town’s economy was improving.

“It’s tough for those who have lost a loved one, and the pain never goes away,” said Bago, who served as mayor for 15 years. “But, economically, we’ve bounced back.”

Bargo notes that nearly every storefront in the downtown plaza is occupied, a century-old theater is under restoration, and a young Mennonite entrepreneur recently opened a coffee bakery.

She said she is concerned that many seniors who are staying home due to fears of COVID-19 are forever changed by quarantine. In her church, people wearing masks remain away from other people, she said.

Noah Wise, 59, a road inspector in Burnham, north of Lewistown, said he was not coping well. His wife, Lisa, a nurse at the Geisinger Clinic, died of COVID-19 in December. She’s 58 and not vaccinated because she’s concerned about how vaccines might affect chronic health conditions — even though health experts say people with chronic health problems are more likely to suffer severe consequences and death from COVID-19.

Wise said Lisa likely contracted the virus from him after being infected in October. “She has no regrets about not being vaccinated,” Wise said. “She thought she’d make it through.”

His wife’s death did not convince him to get vaccinated, as he believed his early infection had given him immunity. Natural immunity does confer some resistance to contracting the disease, but the strength varies widely, so health experts urge those who become infected to get vaccinated.

Jenny Barron Landis, executive director of the Juniata Valley Tourism Authority, which oversees Mifflin County, said many community members were not interested in taking orders from government scientists. “We have a lot of independent farmers and business owners who don’t agree or follow these rules and that plays a big role in the number of deaths and cases,” she said.

Against this backdrop, local funeral director Geoff Burke recalled that his Lewistown funeral home would handle up to 17 deaths for weeks, many of them from COVID-19, three times the average. times. “We were overwhelmed,” he said. “From nursing home to nursing home, COVID has just ravaged our town.”

On March 15, the 133-bed Geisinger Lewistown Hospital had only two patients with COVID-19, a low number, said Dr. Michael Hegstrom, chief medical officer for the Geisinger area, which includes Mifflin County. 50 earlier this winter. Geisinger declined to say how many of Lewistown Hospital’s staff had been vaccinated against COVID-19. It will only say that all its employees are either vaccinated or exempt. Geisinger also declined to say how many of its Lewistown employees have died from COVID-19.

However, hospitals are still affected by the virus. Hegstrom said it’s overrun as a large number of patients with medical problems such as heart disease and cancer have delayed care during the pandemic.

Connie Houtz said the deaths of Eric and Toby (two of her three children) were difficult, but she thanked family and friends and their unwavering faith. She remembers Toby – who had some health issues, including small bowel cancer a few years ago – as “a big, easy-going teddy bear”. Houtz said Eric, who has high blood pressure, enjoys spending time with his daughter and fishing with the teenager.

Both brothers ride Harley-Davidsons and hang out with friends at bars near her house. “Sometimes you still feel like they’re really gone,” she said.