The COVID-19 pandemic has not only caused significant economic, social, and cultural impacts, but it has also significantly influenced the public’s sense of psychological health and safety. Therefore, this study aimed to explain the theoretical logic of risk perception and the sense of public health safety. A conceptual framework of risk perception consisting of four dimensions—emotional perception, information perception, trust perception, and efficacy perception—was constructed. Additionally, the impact of risk perception on the sense of public health safety was empirically explored. By conducting an analysis of a survey of 292 residents in China, we found that risk perception had different impacts on residents’ sense of public health safety. Emotional perception and information perception had significantly negative effects on the sense of public health safety, while the effects of trust perception and efficacy perception were significantly positive. Notably, emotional perception played a partial mediating role in the impact of information perception, trust perception, and efficacy perception on sense of public health safety, respectively. The findings of this study showed that emotional perception is a critical mechanism for improving residents’ sense of public health safety. Some certain guidance measures are provided to reduce public anxiety and fear during pandemics.

It is crucial to study ecological footprint production intensity (EFPI) in the ecological compensation strategy of designated industries and to delineate high-polluting industries. Environment-extended input-output (EE-IO) tables are suitable for analyzing embodied pollution or land occupation among its economic sectors. The ecological footprint (EF) and input-output tables (IOTs) were used to analyze China’s EFPI and its (net) flow among sectors in 2005, 2010, and 2015. With the environment-extended matrix and Leontief inverse matrix of EE-IO analysis, the direct pollution coefficient (DPC) and total pollution coefficient (TPC) of China’s EF were studied. The (net) embodied EFPI flows between any two sectors were decomposed and demonstrated in detail. The key embodied EFPI component transfer paths among sectors were tracked and analyzed. The results for China’s EFPI in 2005, 2010, and 2015 show that the averages of the TPC component and net embodied EFPI transfer components showed a downward trend from 2005 to 2015. The sector of electricity, heat, gas, and water (S11) and the sector of Agriculture (S1) provided larger component values of both TPCs and net embodied EFPI transfers. From the analysis of the three transfer levels of EFPI, high-value transfer paths were further marked for key governance. Imposing an ecological tax and controlling high-EFPI industries were recommended as optimizations from the production and consumption ends. Additionally, this paper provides a reference for the division of ecological responsibility among Chinese sectors.