March in Shinanomachi | Toru Takebayashi, Dean, Graduate School of Health Management
2021.03.16
A year has passed since business trips and meetings all went online. Heading to campus with the New National Stadium on my right has become a daily routine. Before I knew it, the pruned hydrangea branches had all begun to bud, their small, vibrant, light green leaves swaying in the spring breeze.
Vaccinations have begun at the Shinanomachi campus, where the university hospital is located. According to the website of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, 148,950 doses had been administered to healthcare workers as of March 10. Reaching the point of vaccination in such a short period is an event that makes one feel the power of science and technology in overcoming the pandemic, but the crucial part is yet to come.
The free life we all long for will not return unless widespread and equitable opportunities for vaccination are provided, not only in Japan but throughout the world. Problems with production, logistics, syringes... Bottlenecks appear one after another, and efforts are made to overcome them. Will IT finally demonstrate its power in managing vaccinations efficiently this time? (It was thanks to the Vaccination System V-SYS that I was able to state the total number of vaccinations nationwide as of the day before writing this article).
Another formidable opponent is the misinformation spread on social media. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have each begun to assess the reliability of information and flag misinformation (Twitter has a five-strike system that leads to permanent account suspension), and YouTube has reportedly adopted an algorithm that makes it easier for videos with positive information about vaccination to appear, but expert analysis suggests that this is not enough (BMJ 2021;372: n26). This is because information on social media, within "filter bubbles" and "echo chambers," leads users only to what they want to see, and is shared and spread within groups of people who hold similar opinions.
Basking in the spring sun pouring down on Jingu Gaien, I've been thinking lately that I should start by questioning my own search engine.