Viruism: The need for a new term describing COVID-19 impact in context of viral victimization.

Objective: COVID-19 is the current viral pandemic. Its consequences are multifaceted and refer to individual and public physical, mental, and economic states. Therefore, viral outbreaks raise many fears and concerns, both among policymakers and individuals. In light of these fears, we explore the central aspects of viral victimization, compared to another significant threat of this century: terrorism. Analysis: There are many similarities between terrorism and the current pandemic which manifest within the physical, economic, social, and psychological aspects of victimization. To address the multidimensional nature of the pandemic's impact we coined the term viruism. Though terrorism and viruism are not the deadliest of threats, they evoke high levels of fear and cause enormous financial, social, and psychological effects. Conclusion: We recommend exploring the psychosocial mechanisms that account for public reaction to viruism. Identifying such mechanisms will contribute to developing more effective practices in managing the fear of viruism and in decreasing its emotional toll. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved) Clinical Impact Statement—Viruism is a new term that represents pandemic related victimization. The article presents viruism by comparing it to terrorism. Viruism, similar to terrorism, includes physical, economic, social, and psychological aspects. Although both phenomena manifest severe physical consequences, these consequences are more limited than those of other much more “effective killers” as smoking, obesity, or air pollution. The comparison indicates that in the case of terrorism and viruism there is a gap between the objective risk and subjective fears. Effective coping mechanisms dealing with the fear of viruism should be a significant aspect in research on and response to future pandemics.