TPMG physicians take center stage in ‘Hamilton’ parody to encourage vaccination

The worlds of theater and medicine collide in a recent “Hamilton”-inspired YouTube video encouraging individuals to “not throw away their shot” and get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Andrew Liu, DO, a hospitalist with The Permanente Medical Group, was recently interviewed by NPR about his adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “My Shot” score from the popular musical, “Hamilton.” The video features Dr. Liu with a group of Northern California physicians — the “Vax’n 8” — putting a vaccine advocacy spin on a Broadway classic.

“I thought, well, you know, I liked the musical,” said Dr. Liu, who practices at the Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center. “It’s just the logical next step to use the song itself to promote vaccination.”

He added that creating his “My Shot” remix was an opportunity to “get it out to people” that the challenges physicians and medical care teams have faced during the pandemic — from managing emergency department overflow to seeing patients on their deathbeds — are real and getting vaccinated can go a long way toward helping end the pandemic.

“Hopefully, our message gets out, people get vaccinated, and hopefully we’re done,” said Dr. Liu.

Listen to the NPR report here or watch the full video below; stories about the video also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, CBS Sacramento, and other news outlets.