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International audience; Purpose of Review We reviewed the occurrence of outbreaks at past Olympics and discuss the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic at the Tokyo Games. Recent Findings Evidence for large respiratory tract infection outbreaks at past Olympics is scant. Nevertheless, in order to control the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were postponed for 2021. Given the high contagiousness of the disease and the epidemiology of COVID-19 in Japan, this decision was appropriate and important in order to safeguard athletes and the public. However, it is a major problem for Japan, involving massive financial losses and a lost opportunity for athletes, coaches, and instructors. Up-to-date epidemiological data is needed on which to base an appropriate decision regarding the Tokyo 2021 Olympics. The actual effect of cancellations of such events in reducing the spread of COVID-19 needs to be determined.

Abstract This article analyzes the audio diaries of a Tibetan physician, originally from Amdo (Qinghai Province, China), now living in New York City. Dr. Kunchog Tseten describes his experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, in spring and summer 2020, when Queens, New York—the location where he lives and works—was the “epicenter of the epicenter” of the novel coronavirus outbreak in the United States. The collaborative research project of which this diary is a part combines innovative methodological approaches to qualitative, ethnographic study during this era of social distancing with an attunement to the relationship between language, culture, and health care. Dr. Kunchog’s diary and our analysis of its contents illustrate the ways that Tibetan medicine and Tibetan cultural practices, including those emergent from Buddhism, have helped members of the Himalayan and Tibetan communities in New York City navigate this unprecedented moment with care and compassion.

Article paru dans Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology; International audience; A recommendation – based on reviews by Luca Ferretti and two anonymous reviewers – of the article: Danesh, G., Elie, B., Michalakis, Y., Sofonea, M. T., Bal, A., Behillil, S., Destras, G., Boutolleau, D., Burrel, S., Marcelin, A.-G., Plantier, J.-C., Thibault, V., Simon-Loriere, E., van der Werf, S., Lina, B., Josset, L., Enouf, V. and Alizon, S. and the COVID SMIT PSL group (2020) Early phylodynamics analysis of the COVID-19 epidemic in France. medRxiv, 2020.06.03.20119925, ver. 3 peer-reviewed and recommended by PCI Evolutionary Biology. doi: 10.1101/2020.06.03.20119925

International audience; The articles in this special issue address the role of computing in battling with the COVID-19 pandemic. We are currently dealing with a third wave of the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. Cases are spiking in most European countries, Canada, and the United States. The number of reported cases has reached 55 million worldwide, and over 1.3 million people have died.

AbstractAn accurate estimation of parasitism rates and diversity of parasitoids of crop insect pests is a prerequisite for exploring processes leading to efficient natural biocontrol. Traditional methods such as rearing have been often limited by taxonomic identification, insect mortality and intensive work, but the advent of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) techniques, such as DNA metabarcoding, is increasingly seen as a reliable and powerful alternative approach. Little has been done to explore the benefits of such an approach for estimating parasitism rates and parasitoid diversity in an agricultural context. In this study, we compared the composition of parasitoid species and parasitism rates between rearing and DNA metabarcoding of host eggs and larvae of the millet head miner, Heliocheilus albipunctella De Joannis (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), collected from millet fields in Senegal. We first assessed the detection threshold for the main ten endoparasitoids, by sequencing PCR products obtained from artificial dilution gradients of the parasitoid DNAs in the host moth. We then assessed the potential of DNA metabarcoding for diagnosing parasitism rates in samples collected from the field. Under controlled conditions, our results showed that relatively small quantities of parasitoid DNA (0.07 ng) were successfully detected within an eight-fold larger quantity of host DNA. Parasitoid diversity and parasitism rate estimates were always higher for DNA metabarcoding than for host rearing. Furthermore, metabarcoding detected multi-parasitism, cryptic parasitoid species and differences in parasitism rates between two different sampling sites. Metabarcoding shows promise for gaining a clearer understanding of the importance and complexity of host-parasitoid interactions in agro-ecosystems, with a view to improving pest biocontrol strategies.

In late 2019, an epidemic of SARS-CoV-2 broke out in central China. Within a few months, this new virus had spread right across the globe, officially being classified as a pandemic on 11 March 2020. In France, which was also being affected by the virus, the government applied specific epidemiological management strategies and introduced unprecedented public health measures. This article describes the outbreak management system that was applied within the French military and, more specifically, analyzes an outbreak of COVID-19 that occurred on board a nuclear aircraft carrier. We applied the AcciMap systemic analysis approach to understand the course of events that led to the outbreak and identify the relevant human and organizational failures. Results highlight causal factors at several levels of the outbreak management system. They reveal problems with the benchmarks used for diagnosis and decision-making, and underscore the importance of good communication between different levels. We discuss ways of improving epidemiological management in military context.

Abstract The global lockdowns brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic forced an immediate change in the way people moved about;namely, travel was slowed from a turbulent river to a trickle In-person meetings, often involving long-distance flights, were either canceled, postponed, or shifted over to virtual modes People who were unfamiliar with online meetings quickly became acquainted with them