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International audience; Unrealistic optimism, the underestimation of one’s risk of experiencing harm, has been investigated extensively to understand better and predict behavioural responses to health threats. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a relative dearth of research existed in this domain regarding epidemics, which is surprising considering that this optimistic bias has been associated with a lack of engagement in protective behaviours critical in fighting twenty-first-century, emergent, infectious diseases. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating whether people demonstrated optimism bias during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, how this changed over time, and whether unrealistic optimism was negatively associated with protective measures. Taking advantage of a pre-existing international participative influenza surveillance network (n = 12,378), absolute and comparative unrealistic optimism were measured at three epidemic stages (pre-, early, peak), and across four countries—France, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Despite differences in culture and health response, similar patterns were observed across all four countries. The prevalence of unrealistic optimism appears to be influenced by the particular epidemic context. Paradoxically, whereas absolute unrealistic optimism decreased over time, comparative unrealistic optimism increased, suggesting that whilst people became increasingly accurate in assessing their personal risk, they nonetheless overestimated that for others. Comparative unrealistic optimism was negatively associated with the adoption of protective behaviours, which is worrying, given that these preventive measures are critical in tackling the spread and health burden of COVID-19. It is hoped these findings will inspire further research into sociocognitive mechanisms involved in risk appraisal.

By using panel data of 15 Chinese manufacturing industries over the 2005-2014 period from OECD TiVA and WIOD databases, the impact of China's GVCs participation on labor productivity is estimated. We find that while the productivity elasticity of the share of sector's foreign value added relative to sector's exports known as sector backward linkages is negative, that relative to China's gross exports named structure backward linkage is positive. As the annual average growth rates of both backward linkages are negative, China's backward linkages have contributed to productivity growth of 6.41% per year on average. We find that the positive productivity elasticity of the share of domestic intermediate goods embodied in exports of third countries relative to sector's exports, named sector forward linages together with a positive annual average growth rate, and that relative to China's exports named structure forward linkages together with a negative annual average growth rate, have increased productivity of 1.97% per year on average. We find finally that GVCs position is improved from 0.3 in 2005 to 0.7 in 2014. China's GVCs participation exerted positive productivity effects via optimizing resource allocation inside sectors towards more efficiency ones, via moving up from low productivity backward linkages to higher productivity forward linkages and via improving its position. This diminished the risk to be entrenched in low-profitability low productivity growth GVCs activities in China. However, the productivity contribution of backward linkages 3 times higher than that of forward linkage suggests that the future positive productivity impact of GVCs moving up may be much more difficult in a less favorable context (trade war between China and USA, reindustrialization and trade protection related to Covid-19 for example).

International audience

Le domaine de l'infectiologie constitue un champ de recherche transversal. Afin de l'identifier précisément, l'article construit un corpus global des publications en infectiologie en combinant les moyens offerts par le langage contrôlé du thésaurus MeSH de Medline et par la catégorisation des revues scientifiques du Web of Science. Ce corpus mondial permet de caractériser les publications des 20 premiers pays publiant dans le domaine et de retracer les évolutions entre 2000 à 2020. La construction de cartes thématiques permet d'identifier les thèmes de recherche au sein de l'infectiologie dans le monde et en France. L'explosion des publications sur le Covid-19 en 2020 a un impact très visible sur la carte mondiale des thématiques en infectiologie et modifie le positionnement de certains pays dans ce domaine de recherche. La conclusion identifie des pistes d'approfondissement de l'analyse du domaine qui pourraient être suivies à mesure que des données plus complètes seront disponibles sur la période de la pandémie de Covid-19. Research on infectious diseases constitutes a transversal scientific field. A specific corpus is designed by combining a controlled language (Medline MeSH thesaurus) and the categorization of journals (Web of Science). From this global corpus, the article characterizes the publications from the top 20 countries publishing in the field and evolutions between 2000 and 2020. Topic maps show the research themes within the field of infectious diseases both in the world and in France. The explosion of publications on Covid-19 in 2020 has a quite visible impact on the topic map in infectious diseases and changes the position of some countries in this field of research. The conclusion points to issues for further research as more complete data will become available on the Covid-19 period.

International audience; The development of safe and effective vaccines in a record time after the emergence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a remarkable achievement, partly based on the experience gained from multiple viral outbreaks in the past decades. However, the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis also revealed weaknesses in the global pandemic response and large gaps that remain in our knowledge of the biology of coronaviruses (CoVs) and influenza viruses, the 2 major respiratory viruses with pandemic potential. Here, we review current knowns and unknowns of influenza viruses and CoVs, and we highlight common research challenges they pose in 3 areas: the mechanisms of viral emergence and adaptation to humans, the physiological and molecular determinants of disease severity, and the development of control strategies. We outline multidisciplinary approaches and technological innovations that need to be harnessed in order to improve preparedeness to the next pandemic.

International audience; Cette contribution a pour objet les pouvoirs publics en action dans le contexte de la pandémie de COVID-19 en Afrique. Les mesures de lutte contre la propagation de la pandémie ont provoqué un choc économique majeur partout dans le monde, avec une crise dont les effets risquent de se faire sentir encore pendant très longtemps. Il s’agit concrètement d’interroger la manière dont différents acteurs étatiques (ou non étatiques) se sont emparés des problèmes liés à la crise sanitaire et à ses conséquences économiques, les ont définis comme publics et la manière dont ils ont agi pour y répondre. En s’inscrivant dans la perspective des travaux sur l’action publique en Afrique, qui envisagent les rapports entre les différents acteurs dans la définition et la mise en place de réponses à des problèmes publics ou collectifs, l’objectif est de mettre en lumière les formes spécifiques d’actions publiques menées dans le contexte de la crise sanitaire au Congo qui, comme dans les autres contextes africains, sont généralement porteuses de dynamiques sociales et politiques originales. Les réponses formulées par les pouvoirs publics aux conséquences économiques et sociales de la crise sanitaire seront analysées, pendant la période de l’état d’urgence sanitaire décrété lors de la première vague de la pandémie de COVID-19, du mois de mars au mois de juillet 2020. Un regard particulier sera également porté sur les réponses apportées à l’économie informelle, dont les travailleurs sont généralement caractérisés par une précarité et une vulnérabilité socioéconomiques très marquées.

ABSTRACT Mounting evidence suggests that the gut-to-lung axis is critical during respiratory viral infections. We herein hypothesized that disruption of gut homeostasis during severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection may associate with early disease outcomes. To address this question, we took advantage of the Syrian hamster model. Our data confirmed that this model recapitulates some hallmark features of the human disease in the lungs. We further showed that SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with mild intestinal inflammation, relative alteration in intestinal barrier property and liver inflammation and altered lipid metabolism. These changes occurred concomitantly with an alteration of the gut microbiota composition over the course of infection, notably characterized by a higher relative abundance of deleterious bacterial taxa such as Enterobacteriaceae and Desulfovibrionaceae. Conversely, several members of the Ruminococcaceae and Lachnospiraceae families, including bacteria known to produce the fermentative products short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), had a reduced relative proportion compared to non-infected controls. Accordingly, infection led to a transient decrease in systemic SCFA amounts. SCFA supplementation during infection had no effect on clinical and inflammatory parameters. Lastly, a strong correlation between some gut microbiota taxa and clinical and inflammation indices of SARS-CoV-2 infection severity was evidenced. Collectively, alteration of the gut microbiota correlates with disease severity in hamsters making this experimental model valuable for the design of interventional, gut microbiota-targeted, approaches for the control of COVID-19. Abbreviations: SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; COVID-19, coronavirus disease 2019; SCFAs, short-chain fatty acids; dpi, day post-infection; RT-PCR, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction; IL, interleukin. ACE2, angiotensin converting enzyme 2; TMPRSS2, transmembrane serine protease 2.

International audience; The global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted and universalised a series of problems related to the construction of knowledge about political societies that were previously only felt by researchers conducting ‘difficult’ fieldwork. The range of fields designated as ‘difficult’ has spread, so as the number of social scientists that are required to comply with specific protocols regarding how to ‘protect’ themselves, ‘prevent risks’, and ‘avoid danger’. The division of the world’s areas into red, orange, yellow, and green zones has become familiar to social scientists since societal instability, war, terrorism and natural disasters that the Global North had previously associated with distant and exotic countries — the alleged ‘risk countries’ — has become a global norm.

International audience; Tracing infectious individuals and clusters is a major tactic for mitigating the pandemic. This paper explores the factors impacting the intentions and actual use of COVID-19 contact tracing apps based on a technology acceptance model. A partial least squares structural equation model has been applied to understand determinants for the usage of tracing apps based on a large sample (N = 2,398) from more than 30 countries (mainly from Germany and USA). Further, the paper presents a classification of COVID-19 apps and users. Through that, the study provides insights for technologists and designers of tracing apps as well as policy makers and practitioners to work toward enhancing user acceptance. Moreover, the results are abstracted to general social participation with apps in order to manage future strategies. The theoretical contribution of this work includes the results of our acceptance model and a classification of COVID-19 tracing and tracking apps.

Abstract Background Preliminary studies have suggested a link between socio-economic characteristics and COVID-19 mortality. Such studies have been carried out on particular geographies within the USA or selective data that do not represent the complete experience for 2020. Methods We estimated COVID-19 mortality rates, number of years of life lost to SARS-CoV-2 and reduction in life expectancy during each of the three pandemic waves in 2020 for 3144 US counties grouped into five socio-economic status categories, using daily death data from the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine and weekly mortality age structure from the Centers for Disease Control. Results During March–May 2020, COVID-19 mortality was highest in the most socio-economically advantaged quintile of counties and lowest in the two most-disadvantaged quintiles. The pattern reversed during June–August and widened by September–December, such that COVID-19 mortality rates were 2.58 times higher in the bottom than in the top quintile of counties. Differences in the number of years of life lost followed a similar pattern, ultimately resulting in 1.002 (1.000, 1.004) million years in the middle quintile to 1.381 (1.378, 1.384) million years of life lost in the first (most-disadvantaged) quintile during the whole year. Conclusions Diverging trajectories of COVID-19 mortality among the poor and affluent counties indicated a progressively higher rate of loss of life among socio-economically disadvantaged communities. Accounting for socio-economic disparities when allocating resources to control the spread of the infection and to reinforce local public health infrastructure would reduce inequities in the mortality burden of the disease.