Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a healthy and safe February so far. This is our weekly newsletter for February 13, 2026, with upcoming events from PHAN and other organizations, plus news and articles about COVID, other airborne pathogens, and clean air. We're developing some great software tools, hosting twice monthly public Zoom meetings, producing a podcast, and making connections with people around the world. 

 

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On Sunday, Feb 22, 2026, PHAN and Air Support Project  will host special guest Ruth Brooker of Clean Air for Kids UK. Ruth Brooker will be speaking about her personal experience with a child developing leukemia just before the pandemic, and the struggles and successes her family has had with getting him treatment safely and keeping him safe in her hometown of Bristol. The meeting will take place at noon ET. Please register in advance, and you'll need a free account with Zoom in order to register. See you there! 

keep on masking!

U.S. Olympic men’s cross-country ski team members masking at a news conference, Thursday, February 5 at the competition venue in Tesero, Italy. (Nathaniel Herz for FasterSkier)

our airAware widget now includes data from Canada!

We've enhanced the AirAware widget on our website that shows your localized data for air quality and COVID, RSV, and influenza wastewater data to include data from Canada! We'll keep improving this widget to show data from more countries. Any suggestions or feedback? Let us know at info@phan.global.

 

Second installment in Keith muise's blog on travelling across canada shortly after the pandemic started

COVID activist/musician/comedian/all-around good guy Keith Muise had to make a long-distance trip across Canada in 2020 soon after the pandemic started, when his family decided to move from Alberta to Newfoundland to be near his parents. They were also home-schooling their son to keep him safe from COVID. He recounts the journey, sharing some of the joys and sadness they experienced. You can read part 2 of his story on our blog. We're delighted to be working with Keith to bring you his story and some fun video content coming your way in the future, like this great video he did recently on Instagram where he highlights our post about research on the cardiovascular effects of COVID.

 

Clean-air-aware events are happening in so many areas! In the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center will host the Love Birds MASK-erade Ball, an indoor-outdoor, Covid- and Flu-tested, KN95 (or equivalent)-required evening of glorious fashion, dancing, all kinds of treats, and so much love. Highlights will include drag performances by King LOTUS BOY and Taipei, a glitzy photo booth, and Buff Bunny Chainz giving out handmade mask jewelry for all guests. No food will be served in the main area. This event is made possible by Alice Wong and the Disability Visibility Project.

 

Ongoing Meetings

Every Saturday evening: Pandemic Pals meetings on Zoom. Every Saturday at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET, the Pandemic Collaborative hosts a Zoom call with several breakout rooms based on age groups, life situations, and special interests. Check their Google Document the day of the call for that week's Zoom link.

 

Every first Tuesday and third Saturday of the month: COVID Creative Coalition Sessions. Tuesdays meetings are at 6PM ET, and Saturday meetings are at 11AM ET. These will be virtual gatherings where we co-work, plan projects, center disability justice, and hold optional check-ins. Meetings often include co-working using design programs like Canva, but attendees are welcome to use whatever programs they prefer, to make things by hand, or to just be present. Full info at Celebrate845.com/COVIDCreativeCoalition. Non-"Hudson Valley NY" folks are welcome to attend, connect, and get inspired, but we'll be centering building our efforts in the Hudson Valley.

 

Every Sunday: The COVID-Safe Art Collective holds an online gathering every Sunday at 4:30pm until 6pm CT for COVID-safe adults to create art or just chat and be with other aware folks. Zoom link.

 

Every Monday & Sunday: Rising Hope meetings on Zoom. Rising Hope is a community of COVID-conscious folks that meet Monday evenings, plus Sunday mornings for church services. Contact them via Reddit.

 

Daily: The World Health Network hosts COVID-aware community meetings every day. Community care starts with conversation! Their Welcome page explains how to connect with their meeting groups.

All PHAN events are listed on our Events page and can be added automatically to your calendar app of choice.

 

February 14, 2026: Goin' Viral: Valentine's Day Edition. A virtual game show/comedy showcase with Lauren Flans and Ron Placcone, inspired by stuff spreading around the world. The event takes place at 6pm ET / 3pm PT. RSVP to https://tinyurl.com/rsvpgoinviral, and a Zoom link will be sent the day of the event.

 

February 19, 2026: The Sick Times will host a webinar on “The Long COVID Op-Ed”. The Sick Times editors Miles Griffis and Betsy Ladyzhets will discuss The Sick Times’ process for considering pitches and editing stories. Guest speakers will discuss how to share Long COVID stories with broader audiences. Register in advance.

 

February 22, 2026: PHAN and Air Support Project will host a discussion about dealing with cancer during the pandemic. Register in advance, see details above.

 

February 25, 2026: The CA Dept of Public Health (CDPH) will host a virtual public input session where they'll invite residents' thoughts on how CDPH can better support climate and health work over the next 5-7 years. The meeting is at noon PT. Register in advance.

 

March 1, 2026: COVID Memorial Day Collective Memory and Mourning. 12 pm PT / 3pm ET. Monica K. Allen and Jenn of Forest Floor Findings will host a free showcase on Zoom, centering creators who are COVID bereaved, have Long COVID, and/or are from another most-impacted community. Creators are highly encouraged to share projects related to COVID memorialization or pandemic grief. This event is for the COVID-bereaved community, but members of the public are encouraged to attend and bear witness. Register in advance.

 

March 2, 2026: The Society for Disability Studies hosts an event at 12pm EST with advocate and researcher Deborah Lefkowitz, who will present "Navigating Disability: Living, working, and surviving financially with long COVID". A 40-minute talk will be followed by a break and 35 minute Q&A. Email any questions to admin@disstudies.org. Register in advance.
 

March 4, 2026: Mask Together America presents Long COVID Defense Series III, on Wed, March 4, 2026, 4:30pm-9pm ET. Guest speakers will include Delphine Crespo, President of Association of Long COVlD Aragón; Dr. Ciara Steele, co-founder of Clean Air Advocacy Ireland (CAAI); Pamela Morrison, Long COVlD Advocacy Ireland; Elisa Perego PhD, a researcher who coined the term Long COVlD; Angela L., Creator of International Long COVlD Awareness Day; and Devin Russell, Founder of Long COVlD Foundation. Register in advance.

 

March 5, 2026: PHAN and Air Support Project will host a discussion on Long COVID, speaker details to follow. Register in advance.

 

March 11, 2026: Take Action Against Long COVID Demonstration in Olympia, WA. Die-in demonstration at the North Steps of the Washington State Capital in Olympia, WA, 11am-1pm. 

 

March 15, 2026: International Long COVID Awareness Day. Events will be happening around the world.

 

March 19th, 2026: PHAN and Air Support Project will host a discussion on Long COVID in young adults, speaker details to follow. Register in advance.

February 9th, 2026: US Weekly COVID update from the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC). The United States is currently experiencing its 12th COVID-19 wave with >2 months in a row over 500,000 estimated new daily infections. For additional data, visit the PMC Data website, and follow PMC Data author Mike Hoerger on Twitter.

December 26, 2025: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis of 97 million individuals shows that SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of autoimmune diseases, particularly those affecting vascular and connective tissue. 

 

January 26, 2026: Moderna announced that it plans no new late-stage vaccine trials because of policy uncertainty in the United States. Moderna is scaling down its investments in vaccine development as the U.S. market grows increasingly hostile to immunizations, CEO Stéphane Bancel told Bloomberg News at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Moving forward, Bancel told Bloomberg that Moderna will no longer put money into late-stage vaccine studies, though it remains unclear if the CEO was speaking of all vaccines or just those for infectious diseases.

 

January 27, 2026: A study with 3,157 participants with neurologic manifestations of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (Neuro-PASC) across countries with varying income levels: the United States (U.S.), Colombia, Nigeria, and India showed that neuro-PASC presents globally but symptom burden and psychological distress vary across regions. The most frequent neurologic symptoms were brain fog, myalgia, dizziness, headache, and sensory disturbances, with frequency highest in the U.S. and lowest in India.  

 

January 27, 2026: Patients who have had COVID are found to have increased risks of chronic rhinosinusitis, asthma, and allergic rhinitis.

 

February 9, 2026: Three top female tennis players have all dropped out of the Qatar Open tournament due to exhaustion and unspecified illnesses.

 

February 9, 2026: Portugal, Germany and Thailand re-impose COVID Testing for arrivals from China.

 

February 10, 2026: Many Winter Olympics athletes are masking and taking other airborne-pathogen precautions.

 

February 11, 2026: The FDA has rejected Moderna's application for approval of an mRNA influenza vaccine, supposedly over a concern that Moderna’s clinical trial compared its experimental vaccine against a product that the agency did not consider the best on the market. Sources told STAT that Vinay Prasad, MD, director of CBER, overruled career scientists who had been preparing to move forward with a formal review. 

on the lighter side…

Credit: The Vertlartnic

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