Spread of awareness of COVID-19 between December 2019 and March 2020 in France
Abstract During the early phase of outbreaks, awareness of the presence of the disease plays an important role in transmission dynamics. To investigate the processes of how people become aware of a disease, we conducted two complementary investigations. First, we surveyed 868 academic researchers in...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2024-03-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56423-5 |
| _version_ | 1797247347785203712 |
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| author | Horace Blanc Eliane Rothier Bautzer Natacha Vellut Viet-Thi Tran |
| author_facet | Horace Blanc Eliane Rothier Bautzer Natacha Vellut Viet-Thi Tran |
| author_sort | Horace Blanc |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract During the early phase of outbreaks, awareness of the presence of the disease plays an important role in transmission dynamics. To investigate the processes of how people become aware of a disease, we conducted two complementary investigations. First, we surveyed 868 academic researchers in France, on the time and circumstances when they became aware of COVID-19 as an important event. We found that 25% did so before February 18th (first death in France), 50% did so before March 10th (first presidential allocution) and 75% did so before March 16th (announcement of the lockdown). Awareness came from nine categories of circumstances: (1) decisions taken by the government (elicited by 35.7% participants); (2) information from media or social media (24.7%); (3) conversation with friends (22.4%); (4) observed changes in their personal lives (14.0%); (5) decisions taken by the employer (9.2%); (6) observed changes at work (9.9%); (7) suspected case of COVID-19 in their entourage (3.1%); (8) fear for oneself or their entourage (2.8%) and (9) self-appraisal of scientific reports (2.8%). Second, we appraised three general media in France (a television news show, a radio news show, and a newspaper) and showed that COVID-19 became a preeminent topic only after March 1st 2020 when the epidemic is present on national soil. Our results show that multiple intricated factors prompt the awareness of an emerging infectious disease. Awareness is not solely driven by general media as they begin to focus on the topic late. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T19:57:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-956fd4afc21046e88e8555775150e34a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T19:57:15Z |
| publishDate | 2024-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj.art-956fd4afc21046e88e8555775150e34a2024-03-24T12:17:37ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222024-03-011411910.1038/s41598-024-56423-5Spread of awareness of COVID-19 between December 2019 and March 2020 in FranceHorace Blanc0Eliane Rothier Bautzer1Natacha Vellut2Viet-Thi Tran3Inserm, INRAE, Center for Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris NordCNRS, INSERM, Centre for Research on Medicine, Science, Health, Mental Health, and Society (Cermes3), Université Paris CitéCNRS, INSERM, Centre for Research on Medicine, Science, Health, Mental Health, and Society (Cermes3), Université Paris CitéInserm, INRAE, Center for Research in Epidemiology and StatisticS (CRESS), Université Paris Cité and Université Sorbonne Paris NordAbstract During the early phase of outbreaks, awareness of the presence of the disease plays an important role in transmission dynamics. To investigate the processes of how people become aware of a disease, we conducted two complementary investigations. First, we surveyed 868 academic researchers in France, on the time and circumstances when they became aware of COVID-19 as an important event. We found that 25% did so before February 18th (first death in France), 50% did so before March 10th (first presidential allocution) and 75% did so before March 16th (announcement of the lockdown). Awareness came from nine categories of circumstances: (1) decisions taken by the government (elicited by 35.7% participants); (2) information from media or social media (24.7%); (3) conversation with friends (22.4%); (4) observed changes in their personal lives (14.0%); (5) decisions taken by the employer (9.2%); (6) observed changes at work (9.9%); (7) suspected case of COVID-19 in their entourage (3.1%); (8) fear for oneself or their entourage (2.8%) and (9) self-appraisal of scientific reports (2.8%). Second, we appraised three general media in France (a television news show, a radio news show, and a newspaper) and showed that COVID-19 became a preeminent topic only after March 1st 2020 when the epidemic is present on national soil. Our results show that multiple intricated factors prompt the awareness of an emerging infectious disease. Awareness is not solely driven by general media as they begin to focus on the topic late.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56423-5COVID-19AwarenessSociology |
| spellingShingle | Horace Blanc Eliane Rothier Bautzer Natacha Vellut Viet-Thi Tran Spread of awareness of COVID-19 between December 2019 and March 2020 in France Scientific Reports COVID-19 Awareness Sociology |
| title | Spread of awareness of COVID-19 between December 2019 and March 2020 in France |
| title_full | Spread of awareness of COVID-19 between December 2019 and March 2020 in France |
| title_fullStr | Spread of awareness of COVID-19 between December 2019 and March 2020 in France |
| title_full_unstemmed | Spread of awareness of COVID-19 between December 2019 and March 2020 in France |
| title_short | Spread of awareness of COVID-19 between December 2019 and March 2020 in France |
| title_sort | spread of awareness of covid 19 between december 2019 and march 2020 in france |
| topic | COVID-19 Awareness Sociology |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-56423-5 |
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