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COVID-19 is a major source of fear, stress, and anxiety as well as a major factor impacting the health and wellbeing of people worldwide. The present study builds on the recently developed "Fear of COVID-19 Scale" (Ahorsu et al., In International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00270-8, 2020). The sample comprised of 850 participants, male and female young adults from Russia and Belarus. The majority of survey participants are university students and graduates. Females, students, and others from Russia report higher levels of COVID-19-related fear than those from Belarus. Respondents from Russia and Belarus report less fear than people from Iran who were surveyed earlier. The scale used for the present survey evidenced a good Cronbach's Alpha measure of internal consistency or reliability (0.809). Clearly, further research is needed across locations and over time about the nature and extent of fear caused by COVID 19. Overall, the FCV-19S appears to be a valuable and brief instrument that may provide useful information for intervention and policy purposes to migrate fear and problem behavior linked to infectious disease outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study of COVID-19 fear among medical students in Israel, Russia and Belarus and its impact on their depression, exhaustion, loneliness, nervousness, anger and substance misuse during the pandemic. Topics discussed include the higher levels of depression among Easter European students, substance used by the students, namely, cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis, and the importance of intervention by experienced medical and counseling personnel to improve student well-being.