'Not Throwing Away My Shot:' Vacaville Doctors Create Video To Encourage COVID Vaccinations
VACAVILLE (CBS13) — A doctor in Vacaville found some Broadway inspiration to encourage people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
"The real struggle is the hearts and minds of people to convince them, 'No, you don't have to be afraid,'" Doctor Andrew Liu, who has a specialty in hospital medicine, said.
Liu rounded up six of his fellow physicians to do a rendition of the popular song "My Shot" from the musical "Hamilton" to do so.
"We are musicians and we liked Hamilton," Liu said. "What better combination than to use a song like 'My Shot,' to promote it. So, that's where the idea came from."
Dr. Liu hopes the video shows others that their doctors are getting the vaccine and people should follow their example. He started recruiting others to join in on the effort to create a virtual message for all to see.
"Andrew recruited me pretty heavily," Dr. Amanda Thornton, Infection Disease Physician, said.
"We all started chipping in with ideas. And, we were like alright let's do this thing," Dr. Fernando Silva, an emergency physician, said.
Liu's wife, family medicine physician Dr. Tuong-Vi Ha, took part in the video and said that her husband wrote most of the song in two nights.
Ha added that he started writing the day Liu got his invitation for the vaccine.
Dr. Tony Berger, who was also involved in the production, told CBS13 that the six singers recorded at Silva's personal in-home recording studio one-by-one with social distancing and masks.
The group of seven got to work four months ago putting together the lyrics, music and video for their rendition of the song.
After West Sacramento filmmaker Ethan Ireland was finished with the edits, the group was able to release the video on March 9.
"This seemed like a good combination of good community-giving back and medicine," Thornton said.
"By the end, we were like alright this is pretty cool," Silva said.
Aside from Ireland, the front-line workers with fancy footwork had some help with the video. Berger's wife came up with the choreography for the final dance sequence of the video and his teenage son made an animation demonstrating how the vaccine works once inside the body.
"It was really awesome to see it. Just like, you know, 'Whoa! I did that!'" Berger's son Avery said.
Ha told CBS13 she hopes the video gets people to trust medicine more during the pandemic. With her outpatient practice, Ha said she deals with misinformation every day.
The mother also hopes it shows another importance of not throwing away your shot at getting the vaccine.
"I wanted to talk to Andrew about getting that work-at-home parent. Because I think all of us working at home, especially with young kids, really felt it this year," Ha said.
It's been a year with highs and lows for many. There's one thing these doctors hope they hit — the right pitch with their message.