Hopes and prayers lie at the heart of a saint-centric study about mitigating the effects of the pandemic. The study is:
“Which Saint to Pray for Fighting Against a Covid infection? A short survey,” A. Perciaccante, A. Corallic, and P. Charlier, Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, vol. 18, September 2021, 100674. (Thanks to Andrea Rapisarda for bringing this to our attention.)
The authors, at Paris-Saclay University (UVSQ), France and Azienda Sanitaria Universitaria Giuliano Isontina, Italy, explain:
In the absence of a treatment still considered universally effective, and of a vaccine validated by the health authorities, we wanted to know which Catholic saint the European Christian community turned to in the event of infection with Covid-19 to request a miraculous healing.
Methodology— An online survey was carried out on a sample of 1158 adults using social media tools.
Results—All results are presented in this research, with a few saints in the majority, and some dictated by the symptomatology of the Covid-19 infection or the personalities of certain « doctor guru »….
All results are summarized in Table 1.