Coronavirus Pandemic: The Role of Scientific and Documentary Monitoring
Staying up to date on the latest findings regarding COVID-19—including its modes of transmission, clinical presentations, contagiousness, and reproduction number—as well as effective protective measures and the impact of these measures across different countries, all to inform decision-making, is a daunting task.
Every day, in the fields of surveillance, prevention, and health promotion alone, several hundred scientific articles are published, whether through traditional channels (i.e., in peer-reviewed journals) or via submission to open-access repositories prior to peer review. So-called “gray literature” from research institutes or national and international agencies is also exploding in these times of health crisis.
Santé publique France has adapted to this context and the need to track new knowledge in real time to fulfill its missions by implementing:
daily and then weekly literature reviews;
"rapid summaries" of the knowledge.
This literature review and these rapid knowledge syntheses are available on the Santé publique France website.
A literature review on COVID-19 is being compiled for public health officials in France and is available online to the general public. This review includes so-called "gray literature," namely reports and communications from some thirty French and international government or scientific institutions related to the coronavirus.
Below you will find this week’s monitoring report.
Like many national and international organizations that produce and make rapid reviews available to the public, Santé publique France is establishing a system to produce rapid reviews tailored to the national context.
Often completed in just a few days, these reviews compile scientific knowledge and data available in France and around the world regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. They address specific questions that Santé publique France is required to address as part of its mandate.
While some of these rapid reviews are based on the state of knowledge at a given point in time, relying exclusively on literature analysis (scientific articles or gray literature), in most cases they include a discussion of the state of knowledge within the French context.
Objective: to provide decision-makers, healthcare professionals, frontline workers, and civil society with an overview of the current scientific knowledge to understand the evolution of the pandemic and its consequences on public health, prevention interventions, as well as the factors contributing to the evaluation of the public health interventions implemented.
Published rapid summaries
The first rapid summaries produced by Santé publique France were issued as lockdown measures were gradually lifted.
April 28, 2021: Combating COVID-19 among highly vulnerable populations in France: sharing knowledge on screening strategies
July 23, 2020: Heatwave prevention in the general population during the circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus
July 23, 2020: Seasonality of SARS-CoV-2 transmission
July 8, 2020: Proportion of asymptomatic cases and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 during the presymptomatic phase. Rapid COVID-19 Summary
May 5, 2020: Use of masks, particularly non-medical masks, in public spaces as part of the fight against COVID-19
Access scientific publications produced in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Health France Journal Bulletin
Thematic Bulletin | COVID - July 2023)
