Esa Väliverronen is a professor of media and communication studies at the University of Helsinki. He has specialized in media studies and science studies, particularly on the public discourses of science and expertise in society. He is the leader of the consortium Mediating expertise and Public expertise and the freedom of expression.
Piia Jallinoja, professor of health sociology at the Tampere University, has studied various health- and food-related phenomena. The topics of her research include health and food related discourses, perceptions and practices among lay people, professionals and in the media, and health- and food-related fads such as low-carbohydrate diets and most recently veganism. A common thread in her research has been an interest in how the modern and late modern situation of individualism and the reflexively choosing subject, technologization, medicalization and other social phenomena interact with various actor groups: citizens, health care clients, health professionals and the media.
In the MEX consortium, Jallinoja leads the Nutrion, expertise and media project. She also leads a project in forerunner groups in Politics, practices and the transformative potential of sustainable diets consortium.
Politics, practices and the transformative potential of sustainable diets consortium (POPRASUS)
Hanna Nohynek (MD, PhD) is the Chief Physician at National Institute for Health and Welfare, Department of Health Security, Unit of Communicable Disease Control and Vaccines. She has studied extensively vaccine uptake and impact, i.e. prelicensure efficacy and safety, post-licensure effectiveness and vaccine-related adverse events, including the association of Pandemrix to narcolepsy, and Human Papilloma virus vaccine to autoimmune and other diseases.
Nohynek is the secretary of the Finnish National Immunization Technical Advisory Committee, a member of the EU Joint Action on Vaccines and leads the MEX project in Media Use and Vaccination Decisions.
European Joint Action on Vaccination
Idil Hussein is a researcher at the Unit for Infectious Disease Control and Vaccinations at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland. She acts as an administrator of the National Infectious Disease Register. She has previously researched tuberculosis knowledge, attitudes and practices in a minority population in Finland. Furthermore, she’s starting her PhD studies.
In MEX, Hussein works as part of the Association between media use and vaccination decision in real life project.
Sampsa Saikkonen (PhD) is a researcher in Media and Communication Studies at the University of Helsinki. In his dissertation, he investigated the constructedness and expansion of expertise in the contemporary public sphere, particularly around healthy eating. His research interests are primarily in science and technology studies, sociology of expertise, and public communication of science and medicine. He works in the projects Public expertise and the freedom of expression, and Mediating expertise, focusing on vaccination debates.
Marjaana Jones works as a project researcher at Tampere University. She is currently finishing her PhD on patient and public involvement in health services, which focuses particularly on the position experiential expertise and the applications of experiential knowledge in healthcare development and delivery. Her research interests include health related expertise, advocacy and activism, lay perspectives and practices related to health and illness, and health policy.
In the MEX consortium, she works as part of the Nutrition, expertise and media project.
Jonas Sivelä (PhD), is a Senior Researcher at the Unit for Infectious Disease Control and Vaccinations at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Finland (THL). He is responsible for activities and research related to vaccine hesitancy at THL. Jonas Sivelä has conducted an ethnographic PhD study about AIDS-related myths and misconceptions in South Africa. He also has an extensive professional background in communications and journalism.
In MEX, Sivelä works as part of the Association between media use and vaccination decision in real life project. At the moment, he is also a work package leader in the three-year EU Joint Action on Vaccination aiming to strengthen vaccine uptake in Europe.
Tuija Leino (PhD) is docent (adjunct professor) of infectious disease epidemiology in the University of Helsinki, and Chief Physician leading vaccine program development at National Institute for Health and Welfare. She has two decades of experience in vaccination programme research, for example in modeling and cost-effectiveness teams. Presently her main interests are HPV vaccinations: the acceptance and impact of HPV vaccination program, both for girls and boys.
In MEX, Leino works as part of the Association between media use and vaccination decision in real life project.
Riia Järvenpää is an anthropologist, a communications development manager at the National Institute for Health and Welfare and is starting her PhD studies. She is currently working in Stop Diabetes research in analyzing the impact and cost-effectiveness of the social marketing campaign of the project. She has previously specialized in social media management and analytics and nutrition communications, analyzing the dynamics of science-based information versus counter-information.
In the MEX consortium, she works as part of the Nutrition, expertise and media project.
Johanna Nurmi is a postdoctoral researcher in health sociology. In the MEX consortium, she works as part of the Nutrition, expertise and media project. Nurmi has previously studied the contestation of vaccination in Finland through an ethnographic study conducted with vaccine-critical parents and healthcare professionals. She also leads the project Health, Knowledge and Expertise (Emil Aaltonen Foundation 2018-2021) that analyzes criticisms of biomedicine within and outside of medical communities.
Simopekka Vänskä is docent/adjunct professor in applied mathematics in the University of Helsinki, where he has studied various inverse problems: 3D X-ray tomography, inverse scattering problems, electric impedance tomography (EIT), and underwater acoustic source localization. Currently he works as a mathematical modeler at National Institute for Health and Welfare, where he has built HPV transmission and progression models to analyze combined impacts of vaccination and cervical cancer screening, and has, e.g., developed methods in analyzing effectivness of vaccination in real life situations under missing data.
In MEX, Vänskä is part of the Association between media use and vaccination decision in real life project.