Background In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governments around the world instituted various public-health measures. Our project aimed to highlight the most significant similarities and differences in key mental-health indicators between four Western and Northern European countries, and identify the population subgroups with the poorest mental-health outcomes during the first months of the pandemic. Methods We analysed time-series survey data of 205,084 individuals from seven studies from Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and the UK to assess the impact of the pandemic and associated lockdowns. All analyses focused on the initial lockdown phase (March–July 2020). The main outcomes were loneliness, anxiety, and COVID-19-related worries and precautionary behaviours. Findings COVID-19-related worries were consistently high in each country but decreased during the gradual reopening phases. While only 7% of the respondents reported high levels of loneliness in the Netherlands, percentages were higher in the rest of the three countries (13–18%). In all four countries, younger individuals and individuals with a history of mental illness expressed the highest levels of loneliness. Interpretation The pandemic and associated country lockdowns had a major impact on the mental health of populations, and certain subgroups should be closely followed to prevent negative long-term consequences. Younger individuals and individuals with a history of mental illness would benefit from tailored public-health interventions to prevent or counteract the negative effects of the pandemic. Individuals across Western and Northern Europe have thus far responded in psychologically similar ways despite differences in government approaches to the pandemic. Funding See the Funding section.

Though genetic research in bioethical debate is often viewed as a potential threat to the integrity of the donor, the confidentiality of medical records still seems to concern donors more. Research ethical committees have support in the majority of the population for some surrogate decisions. The current emphasis on the question of informed consent in policy making for biobank-based research does not seem to be reflected unambiguously in the concerns of the general public.

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This article presents the results of a poll made among the members of the editorial and advisory boards of Valuation Studies. The purpose is to overview the topic that is the remit of the new journal. The poll focused on three questions: Why is the study of valuation topical? What specific issues related to valuation are the most pressing ones to explore? What sites and methods would be interesting for studying valuation? The answers to these questions provided by sixteen board members form the basis of the article. Based on these answers, it identifies a number of themes concerning the study of valuation, elaborating on the rationale for attending to valuation, the conceptual challenges linked to this, and the specific issues and sites that deserve further attention. Co-authors: Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Patrik Aspers, Stefan Beljean, Alexandra Bidet, Alberto Corsín, Emmanuel Didier, Marion Fourcade, Susi Geiger, Klaus Hoeyer, Michèle Lamont, Donald MacKenzie, Bill Maurer, Jan Mouritsen, Ebba Sjögren, Kjell Tryggestad, François Vatin, Steve Woolgar.

In Vasterbotten County in northern Sweden a start-up biotech company has recently gained all commercial rights to one of the worlds largest population based research biobanks. The biobank and the company have publicly emphasized that all donors have given their informed consent to participate, but within the academy it has become debated whether people have been adequately informed. Based on anthropological fieldwork it is shown that many people do not read the information provided. The data do not, however, suggest that donors themselves perceive a lack of information. This article endeavours to make meaningful the apparent lack of interest among donors in the information they are offered. It is argued that the donation of blood should be analysed in its social and historical context rather than as a response to rational assessment of information of research purposes. It implies a conceptualisation of agency more aware of the intersubjective nature of moral negotiation than usually implied in studies of informed consent.