Table 2 Circumstances during which participants became aware of COVID-19 as an important event in their lives (n = 845).

Decisions taken by the government

“I was coming back to Paris after a week in England. When I saw governmental posters about shielding measures, I realized that "it was really serious". Prevention was becoming systematic and had taken national dimension. The posters looked unusually totalitarian, and for good reason, it was all new for everyone and at the same time it was necessary to act.” (Female master’s student in History)

Information from general or social media

“At the beginning of 2020, […] I spent nights reading “first hand” news from US and Asian websites, sensing that something worrying was happening […]. Just after New Year's Eve, around January 3rd, I remember I couldn’t sleep at night and I searched for as many international sources as I could.” (38-year-old male PhD student in social sciences)

Conversation with colleagues or friends

“I heard about {COVID-19] from a friend, in early January 2020. This friend had heard stories of an epidemic in China from her clients who belonged to high public functions. At that time, I was expecting a vaccination campaign like what we had seen for the bird flu. I realized the magnitude of the problem when the epidemic was reclassified as a pandemic.” (25-year-old female PhD student in mathematics)

Observed changes in their personal lives

“We were waiting for friends at the restaurant. The owner told us that he was going to have to close p for an indefinite period by order of the Prime Minister. The streets seemed strangely empty to us and the city was silent. For me, awareness was long and gradual (…), but the last step taken which led to the acceptance was brutal and took place around the lockdown” (38-year-old male PhD student in biology)

Decisions taken by employer and/or university

“I was doing fieldwork for my Masters’ internship when I got a call from my supervisor telling me to go home. The fieldwork was getting cancelled because of COVID. That’s when I understood that things were serious” (25-year-old female master’s student in biology)

Observed changes at work

“I was doing an internship in Colombia, so I was reading information from afar. At first, I didn’t think that it was going to affect me, but when an international seminar was cancelled, I started to feel that it was getting serious. Finally, on March 13 I learned that I had to return to my home country (Spain), because all flights after that date would be cancelled.” (25-year-old female master’s student in social sciences)

Suspected case of COVID-19

“I live in Mulhouse and we were impacted earlier. Almost all the staff of my children’s day care got sick. Then the children got sick. When I called the director, he told me that something strange was going on. Helicopters were flying over our house more and more often, day and night.” (38-year-old female PhD student in social sciences)

Self-expertise / appraisal of scientific reports

“As a PhD student working on viral modifications, I started to read up on this emerging virus early […]. I became aware that what was happening was going to be important when I started noticing big contradictions between scientific facts and the official communication.” (28-year-old female PhD student in biology)

Fear for oneself or their entourage

“At the retirement party of a colleague, a colleague whom I used to greet with a kiss refused to do so. That’s when I realized that the epidemic was scaring people […] and that it could change a lot of things in my relationships with others.” (40-year-old female researcher in Earth sciences)