Rising Temperatures, Moldy Test Tubes, and Alcohol Use in Japan

Editors' Note

"Heat has broiled the globe this year" leading to a cascade of consequences—from disrupted power and supply chains to scorched crops, parched riverbeds, and most tragically, lost lives—says Alice C. Hill. Her article about heat waves this week is the first in a series of pieces we are running through the end of the year on building for adaptation to and resilience against climate change.

Jennifer B. Nuzzo and Christina Potter follow with a report on U.S. public health laboratories and the persistent challenges that hampered their response to the COVID-19 pandemic and now monkeypox. The authors discuss how the absence of a clearly defined national testing strategy has had deep repercussions, which could continue to manifest in future public health emergencies if that absence is not addressed.

In Japan, many young adults are turning away from alcohol, but the country's tax agency wants to upend the trend. Our next piece details why a contest to get Japan's twenty- and thirty-somethings to drink more could backfire. Our final article examines a new government report showing a dramatic drop in U.S. life expectancy and the health disparities behind this backslide.

As always, thank you for reading, and be well. —Thomas J. Bollyky and Mary Brophy Marcus, Editors  