Please take the vaccine!

We don’t practice paternalistic medicine

Shared decision-making is what we believe in

We go over options, the patient and the physician

Weigh pros and cons, personal preferences and come to a decision

We may recommend strongly, but pushy we are not…

This is something that’s lately weighing on my mind a lot-

Most patients are willing to take medications as prescribed

As long as trust in our competence is not compromised

Yet in the face of a pandemic, it seems we are less effective

In motivating patients to get a vaccine that can give

Them immunity from serious illness and death

We plead with naysayers, thinking of those struggling for their breaths

Yet outright rejection, indignation, even anger we face

When we bring up vaccination, as if we’ve said something out of place…

It is disheartening that in the same encounter,

Acceptable are recommendations all other

The echo chamber of anti-vaccinators has a powerful voice

A million scientific arguments cannot sway their choice

Any further attempts are viewed as paternalism

And that, it seems, further widens the schism…

**

I feel demoralized and defeated yet I try once again

To advocate for the vaccine, maybe this effort would not go in vain

I think of those suffering, and my efforts are redoubled

That’s the only step I can take in these times troubled..