The Invisible Enemy: The Impact of COVID-19 Threat on Society: Keynote Speech Presentation

International audienceThe global sanitary COVID-19 pandemic represents major collective upheaval for laypeople that has shattered many aspects of their lives. Therefore, a pluri-disciplinary research approach appears necessary in order to seize the complex extraordinary societal circumstances of the global COVID-19 pandemic breakdown. The pluri-disciplinary research program CoviZion conducted currently in France that is based on innovative collaboration between hard and soft sciences aims to construct a holistic view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the SARS-CoV-2 virus of 120 nm in diameter that is responsible for the Coronavirus disease is studied by hard sciences researchers that are settling rigorous scientific protocols based on innovative methods from the field of physics, computational sciences and multiphoton microscopy. These methods allow for imaging the biological representation of SARS-CoV-2 virus and its infectious processes, and therefore make the invisible enemy visible for laypeople. Although, the specific characteristics of laypeople’s subjective representations of the worldwide spreading SARS-CoV-2 virus remain rather unexplored. Thus, the aim of the current research program CoviZion is to investigate the specificity of socially constructed representations of SARS-CoV-2 virus having subsequent impact on laypeople’s emotional and behavioral reactions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The primary results of the pluri-disciplinary research program, based on mixed methods research design, offer an in-depth understanding of laypeople’s subjective representations, emotions and behavioral reactions while facing the invisible threat of COVID-19. Such a thorough comprehension of laypeople’s cognitions, emotions, and behaviors during the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic allows to seize laypeople’s aversive reactions due to the currently invisible enemy and related invisible “domino effects” of consequences. Additionally, an investigation of discrepancies between biological image and socially constructed image of SARS-CoV-2 virus contributes irrevocably to an improved multi-level crisis management of COVID-19 pandemic and other potential future pandemic breakdowns