Mutual participation of veterinary staff and clients is necessary for effective communication in clinical practice situations. The purpose of this study was to verify whether the current status of communication in the examination room of a small animal hospital could be evaluated quantitatively using the Rotor Interaction Analysis System (RIAS). RIAS was applied to 12 randomly selected cases from 59 recorded consultations with staff from an endocrinology unit of a veterinary teaching hospital in Tokyo, Japan. Two certified coders carried out the analyses according to the RIAS format; six relevant categories were added, including utterances to pets and colleagues and utterances related to dietary management, which is essential in managing endocrinology diseases like diabetes. Then, the frequency of utterances in each category was compared between veterinary staff and clients. The results demonstrated that the mean consultation length of the 12 interviews was 10 min 6 sec. Inter-coder reliability (Spearman’s ρ＝0.828, P<0.01) was high. There were 16 categories with an average of over one utterance per consultation. Frequent categories were “Backchannel responses,” “Paraphrase/checks for understanding,” and “Transition words” for veterinary staff, while for clients, “Shows agreement or understanding” and “Gives information of dietary activities” were common. The study results, although limited because only one consultation department was included, are consistent with the structure of actual clinical conversations and are considered valid. The usefulness of RIAS has been verified, allowing for this method to be used in diverse studies on veterinary communication in the future.

Due to the spread of novel coronaviral disease (COVID-19) in Japan, in February and March 2020, an expert panel established in the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare advised governors of Hokkaido, Osaka, and Tokyo to enhance control of peoples’ movement. On March 2^nd, Prime Minister announced the national closure of primary and junior high schools to control the spread of COVID-19 although this strategy lacked scientific reasoning. Since the number of newly infected patients kept increasing, the government announced a state of emergency against the disease. During such rapid change of infection status and control measures, the data-sharing system was developed due to the contribution of non-beneficial specialists. Experts started directly providing scientific information to people via the internet and SNS. Even a technical background of the complicated mathematical model was publicized via an internet video site-based seminar held by a leading modeler. Such direct communication between experts and people caused frustration in both the expert and the government side. Finally, the government ordered the dissolution of the expert panel when the first emergency call was lifted. In this paper, looking back at the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak in Japan, I briefly describe how the epidemiologists and researchers have associated with the governments, public, and society over the decision-making of control measures and their impact since the first announcement of the state of emergency by the government.