The Role of Tailored Public Health Messaging to Young Adults during COVID-19: "There's a lot of ambiguity around what it means to be safe".

The COVID-19 global incidence rate among young adults (age 19-40) drastically increased since summer 2020, and young adults were often portrayed by popular media as the "main spreader" of the pandemic. However, young adults faced unique challenges during the pandemic due to working in high-risk, low-paying essential service occupations, as well as having higher levels of financial insecurity and mental burden. This qualitative study aims to examine the attitudes and perceptions of health orders of young adults to better inform public health messaging to reach this demographic and increase compliance to public health orders.