Pandemic

The United Nations did not recommend mask wearing for the overall population before June 2020. There were insufficient clinical trials in real-world conditions to prove their usefulness, and reservations were expressed over counter-productive behaviour that a “false feeling of security” might provoke. But today, in poorer countries that lack access to anti-COVID-19 vaccines, this type […]

Massive vaccination campaigns began at the end of 2020. They enabled numbers of people affected by severe forms of COVID-19 to be reduced. But during the summer, the Delta (Indian) variant emerged, more transmissible than the Alpha (UK) variant, and became dominant. At that time, only a small proportion of the populations of developed countries […]

At the end of 2019, the city of Wuhan reported cases of atypical pneumonia of unknown origin. Scientists then discovered that these cases were due to a new coronavirus, called SARS-CoV-2. The illness that resulted was named COVID-19, and it spread rapidly throughout the world, causing more than 5 million deaths in some 238 million […]

What do we know of the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan? It has been established that certain animals (pangolins, racoon dogs, bats) carry strains very close to SARS-CoV-2. Racoon dogs were sold in Huanan market as well as 3 other live-animal markets in Wuhan (with 11 million inhabitants). Probably through successive infections, this […]

The COVID-19 pandemic is the result of the rapid spread, on a worldwide scale, of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is responsible for COVID-19. By the 22nd of October 2021, more than 242 million people had been infected by the virus and there were more than 5 million deaths. We are living through one of the […]

The state of mental health in a population is difficult to measure. However, it is a significant parameter in times of crisis. But since it is difficult to identify, it tends to be neglected in favour of more easily quantifiable aspects of behaviour. However, Swiss and German researchers did analyse the mental health of the […]

At the end of 2019, China reported unusual cases of pneumonia in the province of Wuhan. A few weeks later, the first cases of COVID-19 were detected, the 21st of January in the United States and the 24th of January in France. But there was a great deal of uncertainty concerning the introduction of the […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to innovations in terms of political organisation and coordination, but has also revealed weakness in the American health care system. Over the last two years, the system has focused on COVID-19 patients and on the prevention of transmission. But for those patients suffering from chronic illnesses, there have been fewer […]

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has high efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 infections. However, there have been cases of infection by SARS-CoV-2 in fully vaccinated individuals (2 doses), notably amongst health care staff who in general have greater exposure to the virus. Israeli researchers have looked at these types of cases in order to describe and analyse them, […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has refuelled the debate on health financing, which has been, and continues to be, very expensive. Governments have had to introduce public health measures such as the wearing of masks, lockdowns, diagnostic testing, contact tracing, various drug therapies, and vaccination. The economic global recession, with an estimated 3,3% worldwide slump in 2020, […]