Boaz Hepner, full-time registered nurse and part-time journalist, noticed something that everyone has been experiencing throughout the pandemic, whether they are pro-vaxx or anti-vaxx: Information about the vaccines and COVID has ranged from flawed to atrocious.
Hepner, who works at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, said, “The healthcare community needs to learn how to communicate better with the general public.”
When in journalist mode, he has interviewed experts in infectious disease and epidemiology. “I have become the COVID vaccine educator for my hospital,” said the part-time blogger and Jewish Journal contributor.
In December, Hepner recorded a series of 14 two-hour-lectures at Saint John’s, which were accessible to both hospital staff and the public. A friend, David Kopp, then helped him produce an over two-hour long YouTube video called “Q&A About Vaccines with Boaz Hepner.”
Hepner told the Journal the video “teaches A to Z about COVID and really addresses head-on the majority of vaccine hesitant questions and concerns.”
In it, he is apolitical, and backs up his teachings with information from the medical community. For example, he explains why the pharmaceutical companies were able to get the vaccine out quickly and how people who got a booster had more antibodies than people who had just recovered from COVID.
“The people who had the booster had 53 times more protective antibody levels,” he says, in the video. “Fifty-three times more. That’s incredible.”
While the 42-year-old graduate of Hillel Hebrew Academy, YULA and UCLA has gained and shared insights, he says it’s “frustrating to find yourself in the middle of a situation we never thought we would be in, an actual pandemic,” he said. “I never thought I would say ‘actual pandemic’ outside of a movie.”
“The healthcare community needs to learn how to communicate better with the general public.” – Boaz Hepner
Hepner said he has been an organizer since at least his mid-20s, the person people turn to when they need to plan for the next event.
“I am proud of that role,” he said. “[It] makes me feel happy. I am not humble like Moshe Rabbeinu. I am proud of the things I have accomplished.”
About 12 years ago, Hepner was in his 30s and still didn’t know what he wanted to do for a living. His father is a retired gastroenterologist, one of his brothers is a cardiologist and his other brother is a mohel and day trader. His sister is a lawyer.
One day, he realized he wanted to become a nurse thanks to a friend, David Mayman, his family’s lawyer.
“He said it would be perfect for me,” said Hepner. “‘Whatever you do,’ he said, ‘you do it with people.’”
He started nursing school in late 2010, and met his wife Adi that year; today they are married and have one daughter together.
When the pandemic hit, the curious nurse said he wanted “more information. I started daily conversations with an epidemiologist I worked with, and with the infectious disease doctors I talked to. I realized I needed to get this information out better. Then, in March 2020, I did my first formal interview – almost five hours on the phone — with the epidemiologist .”
If Hepner could attract a giant audience in one setting, what would he tell them about the pandemic?
He has two points. One is to stop relying on the news feed and social media and instead trust doctors. The second?
“It is safer [to follow] the data, not just to get the vaccine but [to] know that each side effect you are afraid of getting from the vaccine also is more common in COVID.”
Along with educating the public about COVID, Hepner is going to continue focusing on his day-to-day work with patients at the hospital.
“It’s wonderful,” he said. “[My work] can be lifesaving [and] life-altering for each of those people [and] even life-altering for me.”
