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ObjectiveIn 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a proposed regulation to lower nicotine in cigarettes to minimally addictive levels to help smokers quit. We sought to explore effective message strategies communicating about nicotine reduction in cigarettes across the different key audiences that the regulation is most likely to influence.MethodsWe designed four types of messages: efficacy messages, risk messages, a message about alternative sources of nicotine and a compensation message. Sixteen virtual focus groups were conducted in Atlanta and San Francisco in April–May 2020. Data were analysed in NVivo 12.0 using a thematic analysis approach.FindingsExclusive smokers were receptive to both efficacy messages and risk messages. Dual users were the only group that was open to resorting to alternative sources of nicotine. Former smokers were critical of these messages as promoting the new kinds of cigarettes and potentially encouraging initiation and relapse of smoking. Non-smokers felt that efficacy messages downplayed the risks of smoking and did not scare people away from smoking. Presenting information that very low nicotine cigarettes (VLNCs) still contain harmful chemicals made smokers question continued smoking in the absence of nicotine and view VLNCs as harmful.ConclusionsMessages communicating about nicotine reduction in cigarettes might help to motivate smokers to quit and can correct the misperceptions that VLNCs are less harmful. The FDA should consider specific target audiences and use different messages that complement each other in communicating about this regulation.

We report a cluster of serogroup B invasive meningococcal disease identified via genomic surveillance in older adults in England and describe the public health responses. Genomic surveillance is critical for supporting public health investigations and detecting the growing threat of serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis infections in older adults.

Mexico is one of the countries most affected by COVID-19. Studies have found that smoking behaviors have been impacted by the pandemic as well; however, results have varied across studies, and it remains unclear what is causing the changes. This study of an open cohort of smokers recruited from a consumer panel (n = 2753) examined changes in cigarettes per day (CPD), daily vs. non-daily smoking, recent quit attempts, perceived stress, depression, and perceived severity of COVID-19 at two points during the pandemic: March and July 2020. Differences in CPD between waves were estimated with Poisson regression using generalized estimating equations (GEE). Differences in perceived stress were estimated with linear regression using GEE, and differences in recent quit attempts, depression, and perceived severity of COVID-19 were estimated using separate logistic regression GEE models. Rates of depression were higher in July compared to March (AOR = 1.55, 95% C.I. 1.31–1.85), and the likelihood of recent quit attempt was lower in July compared to March (AOR = 0.85, 95% C.I. 0.75–0.98). There was no statistically significant change in CPD, daily smoking, or perceived stress. Perceived COVID-19 severity for oneself increased significantly (AOR: 1.24, 95% C.I. 1.02–1.52); however, the perceived COVID-19 severity for smokers remained constant. Our study suggests that as the COVID-19 pandemic expanded in Mexico, smoking frequency remained stable, and quit attempts decreased, even as adult smokers increasingly perceived infection with COVID-19 for themselves as severe. These results can aid in the development of health communication strategies to educate smokers about their risk for COVID-19, potentially capitalizing on concerns that stem from this syndemic of communicable and smoking-related non-communicable disease.

She's been called Superwoman. She's been accused of doping. Her stunning performance last Saturday was deemed impossible by some, miraculous by others. The 16-year-old Chinese Ye Shiwen's world record-breaking 400m individual medley swim was extraordinary: she finished the last 100m in 58.68sec - her last 50m was almost a fifth of a second faster than Ryan Lochte, the winner of the men's race. The leading US coach John Leonard was quick to judge Shiwen's performance as \"suspicious\": whenever something \"unbelievable\" happens \"it turns out later on there was doping involved\", he said. But tests came back negative. Standing in the spotlight is a young woman who has awed the world with her incredible talent. Compared with other world-class female swimmers, Shiwen has placed herself in a different bracket statistically, based on analyses of her performance. For Ye Shiwen, this was not only a victory in swimming, but also a victory over disbelievers and false accusations. With four words, Gemma Gibbons gave us one of the most heartrending moments so far. As she secured her place in the judo final, kneeling exhausted over defeated world champion Audrey Tcheumo, she succumbed to tears of joy and sorrow. Looking skyward, the 25-year-old mouthed the words: \"I love you, Mum.\" Jeanette Gibbons, who took her to training and competitions, died of leukaemia in 2004. \"She did so much for me when she was alive,\" Gibbons explained. \"Obviously I don't get to say thank you for that, so that was a kind of thanks to her.\" Although she lost to Kayla Harrison of the US in the final, Gemma's silver medal was GB's first in judo for 12 years, and brought the country to tears. Nobody could have been prouder than Bert le Clos when his son, Chad, beat [Michael Phelps] in the 200m butterfly to win gold. Bert's interview with Clare Balding after the race brought him to national attention; he gesticulated and cried \"Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable!\" and \"Look at him. He's beautiful. I love you\" as he saw footage of his son. He added later: \"I have never been so happy in my life. It's like I have died and gone to heaven. Whatever happens, from now on, it is plain sailing.\" Although slightly taken aback by being on television, Bert provided comic relief, remarking on his appearance on the television monitors. \"Is this live?\" he asked. It was, Clare Balding told him, but it was being recorded for posterity - and endless replays on YouTube.

MORE than twenty years ago, my husband and I were living at Tahiti, Society Islands. My husband's business rendered it necessary for him to make frequent trips among the islands of the South Pacific and upon one of his voyages to the Pomotu* Islands adverse winds drove his vessel far to the northwest of his course.

IN the early days of American history the country lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains was almost as much an unknown land as is the Africa of today; and even as late as 1844 a member of Congress characterized the region as totally, unfit for habitation by the white man...

My idea of a guano island had always been that it was very rocky, and covered with a white substance resembling mortar, before the sand is mixed with it. I imagined, too, that it exhaled an odor differing somewhat from the orange groves of Tahiti. Had I not been told that I was on a guano island, I would not have known it...

We examine the way race and racial categories are adopted in algorithmic fairness frameworks. Current methodologies fail to adequately account for the socially constructed nature of race, instead adopting a conceptualization of race as a fixed attribute. Treating race as an attribute, rather than a structural, institutional, and relational phenomenon, can serve to minimize the structural aspects of algorithmic unfairness. In this work, we focus on the history of racial categories and turn to critical race theory and sociological work on race and ethnicity to ground conceptualizations of race for fairness research, drawing on lessons from public health, biomedical research, and social survey research. We argue that algorithmic fairness researchers need to take into account the multidimensionality of race, take seriously the processes of conceptualizing and operationalizing race, focus on social processes which produce racial inequality, and consider perspectives of those most affected by sociotechnical systems.