Daisuke Yoneoka, Shuhei Nomura, Haruka Sakamoto, Hiroaki Miyata are among the authors of a paper pointing to the urgent need to optimize media campaigns addressing vaccine hesitancy and increasing vaccination coverage. Given the wide discrepancy among age groups in their attitudes toward vaccination and information sources, the authors propose generation-specific online and offline media campaigns, creating tailor-made media channels to boost vaccination rates.

“Identification of Optimum Combinations of Media Channels for Approaching COVID-19 Vaccine Unsure and Unwilling Groups in Japan,” The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(21)00239-X/fulltext

In a separate paper, Shuhei Nomura, Haruka Sakamoto, and other researchers examine issues for the third phase of Japan’s national health promotion policy (Health Japan 21), launched in 2000 to prevent and control non-communicable diseases and underlying risk factors. Using the latest findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, the authors highlight diseases that continue to pose health risks, along with preventable metabolic and behavioral risk factors, which have been associated with severer symptoms and death from COVID-19.

“Toward a Third Term of Health Japan 21 – Implications from the Rise in Non-communicable Disease Burden and Highly Preventable Risk Factors,” The Lancet Regional Health – Western Pacific
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(21)00286-8/fulltext