An optical visualization of free virions for revealing the first public enemy

ABSTRACT

Viruses are unseen enemies which tend to disarmingly spread from person-to-person, therefore causing health damages and weakens the immunity system. Their invisibility give rise to various representations, projections and imaginations that allow laypeople to tame the unseen and intangible nature of viruses. For the first time to our knowledge, we are proposing a novel and uncommon scientific approach resting on the synergy between two scientific field Technical Sciences & Medicine (TSM) with Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). Therefore, we present the results of our investigations concerning the evaluation of the social impact of the scientific image of free virions on a specific population, particularly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic people over 60 years old. For this research, we have implemented two scientific imaging solutions to visualize the free viral particles of SARS-CoV-2. The first one is a standard solution of electron microscopy and the second one is an optical and computational solution of microscopy. The scientific representations of SARS-CoV-2 that we have proposed is in fact highly different from the mass media image that we can see everywhere. Concerning the targeted population, we have demonstrated that the scientific image has a negative impact on the population. Thus, the socially constructed representations of these invisible enemies have a preponderant role in driving laypeople’s emotional reactions and health-related behaviors. Therefore, imaging viruses remains a critical scientific effort that contributes irrevocably to alleviate laypeople’s misrepresentations of these invisible enemies. © 2022 SPIE