"The starting point is to do our best to approach discussing COVID and vaccination with the appropriate type of empathy and understanding.

To understand that our patients don’t have access to the same level of data and research that we do, and even if they did, they might not understand it. To understand, they likely have fears underlying their reticence.

Understand you may not ever reach them, or you may need to back off for a short time. This can all be done without acknowledging their conspiracy theory or misleading talking point from 24-hour cable news is a legitimate point of view.

While admittedly anecdotal, I’ve reached more anti-vaxxers starting with empathy and understanding than with a 'that’s the way it is, that’s what the data shows' mentality. Even if I don’t reach them, I’m a lot less stressed. Last but not least, take care of yourselves and each other."

Kenneth Szwak is a physician assistant.

He shares his story and discusses his KevinMD article, "A milligram of understanding for anti-vaxxers."

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