The 21st century extreme situations, such as the global COVID-19 breakdown elicited by the invisible SARS-CoV-2 virus, represent major collective upheavals for people and societies. Indeed, to date, the global COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic has caused more than 336 790 193 confirmed cases and 5 560 718 deaths (World Health Organization: Coronavirus COVID-19 Dashboard, January 20, 2022). Thus, the complexity of the COVID-19 pandemic requires a pluri-disciplinary research approach in order to investigate these extraordinary circumstances. The pluri-disciplinary research program CoviZion conducted currently in France is based on innovative collaboration between hard and soft sciences that allows to construct a holistic overview of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the population. Specifically, the SARS-CoV-2 virus of 120 nm in diameter, at the origin of the COVID-19 Coronavirus disease, is investigated by innovative methods from the field of virology, physics, computational sciences and multiphoton microscopy that allow imaging the biological representation of the virus. Further, the socially constructed representations of SARS-CoV-2 virus were investigated by mixed methods research design. The main latest results of CoviZion demonstrated that laypeople, aged from 18 to 84 years, perceive SARS-CoV-2 as a dangerous and worldwide killing virus that elicits negative emotions (fear, anxiety, sadness) and aversive reactions (uncertainty, stress, loneliness, tiredness, depression). Moreover, discourse analyses of older participants’ storytelling demonstrated that the unknown and invisible virus remains a source of various fears, fascinations and fantasies. In particular, the “war metaphor” and martial rhetoric that emerged in older participants’ storytelling resonate in line with the COVID-19 mass media and political storytelling in France. These findings contribute not only to an improved knowledge of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the population, but also to an improved crisis management effectiveness of current and future pandemic breakdowns.