Already, the COVID-19 pandemic has left a deep mark on all levels of human activity and sentiment. As far as the best possible management of the situation is concerned, it is not only up to governments and experts in health systems, but ultimately up to each individual to act appropriately. Understanding the psychological background and the societal context is essential. This essential is also intended to make a contribution in the sense of joint and successful coping.

This Springer essential is a translation of the original German 1st edition COVID-19 und Psychologie by John G. Haas, published by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature in 2020. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically different from a conventional translation. Springer Nature works continuouslyto further the development of tools for the production of books and on the related technologies to support the authors.

John G. Haas is a qualified psychologist, entrepreneur and innovator. He teaches psychology, data science and future studies at two Austrian universities of applied sciences. The main focus of his work is the research and development of psychosocial services in the context of digital applications. Among other things, he was responsible for the development of the award-winning "fem:help" app, which was offered as a free service by the Austrian federal government. He is currently working on various projects on the topics of COVID-19, digital health and infodemiology.