Evidence regarding the important role of adolescents and young adults (AYA) in accelerating and sustaining coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreaks is growing. Furthermore, data suggest two known factors that contribute to high severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmissibility—presymptomatic transmission and asymptomatic case presentations—may be amplified in AYA. However, AYA have not been prioritized as a key population in the public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Policy decisions that limit public health attention on AYA and are driven by the assumption of insignificant forward transmission from AYA pose a risk to inadvertently reinvigorate local transmission dynamics. In this viewpoint, we highlight evidence regarding the increased potential of AYA to transmit SARS-CoV-2 that, to date, has received little attention, discuss adolescent and young adult specific considerations for future COVID-19 control measures, and provide applied programmatic suggestions.

The years 2020–21, designated by WHO as the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife, are characterised by unprecedented global efforts to contain and mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Lessons learned from successful pandemic response efforts in the past and present have implications for future efforts to leverage the global health-care workforce in response to outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases such as COVID-19. Given its scale, reach, and effectiveness, the response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic provides one such valuable example, particularly with respect to the pivotal, although largely overlooked, contributions of nurses and midwives. This Personal View argues that impressive achievements in the global fight against HIV/AIDS would not have been attained without the contributions of nurses. We discuss how these contributions uniquely position nurses to improve the scale, reach, and effectiveness of response efforts to emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential; provide examples from the responses to COVID-19, Zika virus disease, and Ebola virus disease; and discuss implications for current and future efforts to strengthen pandemic preparedness and response.

Latino adolescents are disproportionately affected by teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV, persistent sexual and reproductive health (SRH) disparities that represent a national public health concern. Despite progress nationally, Latina adolescents continue to exhibit above-average teenage pregnancy, birth, and repeat birth rates. 1 Particularly concerning are the 17% increase in reportable sexually transmitted infections among 10-to 19year-old Latino adolescents since 2014 and the 6% rise in new HIV diagnoses among 13-to 19-year-old Latino adolescents between 2016 and 2017 alone. [2][3][4] Given these statistics, research is needed to strengthen the evidence on programs to reduce Latino adolescent SRH disparities.