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Much of current French literature deals with social issues, with a particular focus on reality. In the context of the increasingly visible effects of man-made climate change, this interest in social issues is combined with an interest in ecology and environmental protection. French climate fiction is often set in rural areas, which have undergone massive structural change over the last 50 years. The article examines an example of ecocritical sociobiofiction, Serge Joncour’s family saga – with its two parts Nature humaine (2020) and Chaleur humaine (2023) – which, through the example of a farming family in the south of France, chronicles a France increasingly marked by socio-ecological and environmental themes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of COVID-19 and the subsequent closing of religious institutions through lockdowns created a pandemonium that saw churches not being able to meet physically for worship. COVID-19 lockdowns diluted the traditional meaning of sacramental theology for mainline churches. The effects of the pandemic were so bad that churches in Zimbabwe were closed towards Lent season in 2020. Mainline churches that used to shun the technologisation of religion were forced to embrace technology, in order to be relevant. Unfortunately, sacraments that demanded face-to-face administration remained a theological dilemma. Using the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe as a case study, the aim of this article is to challenge the church's traditional sacramental theology and propose a theological treatise that has relevance in the context of pandemics such as COVID-19. The article proposes a reinterpretation of sacramental theology that makes the rite sacred to the lives of the parishioners, even during pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article accords epistemic privilege to comfort women as embodiment of the perversion of hospitality. It draws a parallelism between their surviving the pandemics of World War II as forcibly recruited sex slaves and COVID-19. Through their lived experience as survivors of pandemics, a feminist-postcolonial theology of radical hospitality first critiques biblical narratives of men's hospitality to men. The parallel stories of Lot's offer of his virgin daughters (Gen. 19) and the Levite's offer of his concubine (Judges 19) expose, first, the hierarchisation of male guests over women, as property of men, and secondly, the inviolable creed of hospitality conferred on men by men, that is sustained by the cultural code that marks women's bodies as violable. Secondly, the article argues that extending hospitality to comfort women (for example, war reparations) goes beyond the "law of ekstasis", as touted in Fratelli Tutti, as comfort women themselves embody love, reciprocity, and inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the 55 days of detention imposed by the French authorities as a protective measure to control the spread of the Covid-19 virus, from 13 March to 11 May, I made notes and linked to several cuts and scars. It was my intention to open some lines of reflection on the impact of this pandemic on three major domains or spaces of psychological reality of which I characterized the formations and processes as follows: the intraspychic space of which I was dedicated to subjects in their singularity; these of the intersubjective, of the connections they make with other subjects; these of pluri-subjective ensembles such as families, groups and institutions. These spaces are not closed off, they are porous in relation to mutual influence and transformation. So it is the flux of the mental reality between these areas during the pandemic that I focus my attention. In particular, she focuses on what seems to me to be the background of the malaise in contemporary culture, an unease that affects both the whole and each of the psychic spaces separately. These notes reflect my preliminary and partial reflections on the spaces of mental reality and manifestations of malaise during this period of pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article tries to understand the manifold impact the coronavirus crisis has had on social life. Beck's 'risk society' is discussed, especially in the pandemic's transition from a risk to a concrete threat. Moreover, the article shows that the World Health Organization was already framing its discourse in connection with risk, though the nation-state model that dominates global politics prevented it from taking more decisive action, not because nation-states are weak, but because they simply did not ascribe importance to looming pandemics. This is bound to change: politically-steered and policy-oriented state capabilities – taxation, managing, moulding, surveillance, coercion, materialization, along with a legal meta-capability, which never waned, return to the forefront. At least partly in the West and Latin America the security of populations has taken centre-stage. Keynesianism and some sort of state welfarism are making a comeback. Changes in 'global health governance' are happening, too. While the precise direction of change is unclear, the article presents some future possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of COVID-19 in Pakistan, the already fragmented blood transfusion services (BTS) received a severe blow, putting the lives of transfusion-dependent thalassemia children on stake. This study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 on blood transfusion therapy (BTT) of thalassemia patients and suggest ways to ensure safe and reliable blood supplies amid such health crises. A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2019 (before COVID-19) to July 2020 (during COVID-19) based on the data provided by a thalassemia center, named Help International Welfare Trust, Karachi, Pakistan. SPSS version 24.0 was used for the data analysis. Data were described in the form of means and percentages. There was a significant reduction in the consumption of PRBCs bags after the emergence of COVID-19 (P = 0.002). Moreover, the number of thalassemia patients receiving BTT was dropped by 10.56% during the pandemic. There was a strong negative correlation observed between the rising cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan and the number of patients missing their therapy sessions (r = −0.914, P = 0.030). A considerable decline in the reserves of all Rhesus-negative blood groups amid the COVID-19 outbreak was also observed. The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the already suboptimal care catered to thalassemia patients in Karachi, Pakistan. The fear of the virus contraction coupled with the lockdown and restricted mobility has disrupted the entire transfusion chain from donor to the recipient. Collaborated efforts by the government and healthcare authorities are essential to ensure sufficient blood for thalassemia patients amid the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of COVID-19, the field of risk communication must engage in more meaningful research and advocacy to support the systemic changes that are necessary for improving our pandemic response. Risk communication can also learn from cultural studies, using a more critical lens to study underlying inequalities and power structures, and the role of culture and politics in shaping risk perceptions and behaviours. Reputational management and public wellbeing are commonly stated goals. Yet COVID-19 has underscored the fractured identity and purpose of the field, and risk communicators need to be honest about whether they are working to protect the public or protect reputations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé Les infections respiratoires basses demeurent dans le monde la principale cause de mortalité d'origine infectieuse. La grippe y est particulièrement impliquée, que ce soit intrinsèquement ou plus encore, en faisant le lit des infections et superinfections bactériennes. Elle est aussi responsable de la décompensation de nombreuses comorbidités, et favoriserait l'apparition de certains infarctus du myocarde et d'accidents vasculaires cérébraux. Plus que les thérapies antivirales dont l'impact reste limité, les mesures préventives chez les patients à risque, et tout particulièrement la vaccination, demeurent un enjeu majeur de santé publique. La grippe reste donc toujours un défi de tous les instants et à tous les niveaux, de la prévention vaccinale, à la reconnaissance des formes atypiques, en passant par la prise en charge précoce des complications bactériennes. Abstract Lower respiratory infections remain the deadliest communicable disease in the world. Influenza infections are particularly involved, whether intrinsically, or more frequently, by promoting bacterial infections and superinfections. The flu is also responsible for the decompensation of many comorbidities and could lead to some myocardial infarction and stroke. The effect of antiviral therapies is limited but preventives measures, such as vaccination, remain a major public health issue. The flu is a major challenge at all levels and all times, from vaccine prevention, to the recognition of atypical forms, and the early management of bacterial complications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]