shake = forget?

Can the usage be used in first or second person?

He couldn't shake the conversation===>>> you will shake it ...


Context:

BIOPHYSICIST DAVID BRENNER WAS IN
his 40s when an older colleague in New
York City, a prominent pediatric radiolo-
gist, mentioned in conversation something
Brenner couldn’t shake: Far too many chil-
dren, the pediatrician felt, were getting
computed tomography (CT) scans for ail-
ments, such as suspected appendicitis, that
used to be diagnosed easily by ultrasound or
even observation. Cells in children, already
more vulnerable because they divide faster
than those of adults, have more time to turn
cancerous after the initial damage from radi-
ation. And a single CT scan delivers a lot of
it, the equivalent of dozens to a few hundred
chest x-rays. A concern about the CT boom,
planted 11 years ago, began to grow.