Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a healthy and safe February so far. This is our weekly newsletter for February 20, 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. 

 

You can manage your subscriptions from the “manage preferences” link at the bottom of this email. You can support us by liking, sharing, and commenting on our social media posts on Bluesky, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. 

 

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On Sunday, Feb 22, 2026, PHAN and Air Support Project will host a discussion on COVID and cancer, with guest speakers Ruth Brooker of Clean Air for Kids UK, and Arijit Chakravarty, a pharmaceutical researcher by day and COVID educator by night. 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. Arijit Chakravarty will discuss some of the science around the intersection of COVID and cancer. The discussion will take place at noon ET / 5pm GMT. Please register in advance, and you'll need a free account with Zoom in order to register. See you there! 

Makers' Spotlight!

Chris Covell is a creator and Long COVID survivor who makes wonderfully cheeky and bold art related to Long COVID. We are delighted that for the rest of February and all of March, he's donating a portion of his profits from his store to PHAN! You can check out his Instagram account for his store and purchase any of his Long COVID and other designs on his website. 

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.

 

Recent Zoom meeting recordings now available on YouTube!

Two of our recent Zoom meetings are now up on our YouTube channel! You can view the recording for our meetings from January 22, 2026 about COVID, IAQ, and art with guest speaker and artist Jon Jon, and from February 10, 2026 about Long COVID and the Black Community with guest speaker Chimére L. Sweeney. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more great videos to come.

 

Clean-air-aware events are happening in so many areas! The Clean Air Club, based in Chicago, is the original clean air club, an organization that provides air purifiers and other mitigation devices for events. Their Instagram account posts about events in the Chicago area that provide air purifiers and/or are mask-required. If you're in the Chicago area and would like to borrow an air purifier for an event, you can request one on their website.

 

Text reads:

 

COVID-safer events with HEPA air purification in Chicago

2/18, 6-7:15pm: Craft + Chat with @chlowheehee / Rogers Park Branch Library (WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE) (MASK REQUIRED)

2/18, 7:30pm: Caro Granner, Bella Moss, Aliejha / Reggie’s (WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE) (LIVESTREAM AVAILABLE) @aliejha @bellamoss.music @granner.music

2/19, 7pm: Transcendence: A Black Trans Variety Show / The Newport Theater @transcendencechi  @dmbrown_tbo; @_chrreejewelz

2/20, 7pm: BadGirls.com presents ‘Bad Romance’ Featured Reading and Open Mic / Chique o Latte (WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE) @m.s.blair

2/20, 8pm: Benefit Show for Organized Communities Against Deportation featuring Magma, Yabai, Tapework, Godchain, D’arcy Lynn / Collider (MASK REQUIRED) @magma.athc.630 @yabai_hxc @godchainband @darcylynn2mosh @collider___ 

2/20-21, 7:30pm: Project Bound Dance presents Smoking Meat / Steppenwolf 1700 Theatre (WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE) @projectbounddance @stclookout

2/21, 6pm: Secret Third Thing Drag Show / Solar Intentions NA Bottle Shop (WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE) (MASK REQUIRED) @k.hols.cash @ratmiddleman @solarintentions

2/22, 3pm: Project Bound Dance presents Smoking Meat / Steppenwolf 1700 theatre (WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE) @projectbounddance @stclookout

2/22, 6pm: STN x Strike the Gay Harp: Quare Tunes with Queer Musicians / Shepherd School of Irish Music (MASK REQUIRED) @littlerednestchicago @savethenightchicago

ID: Text-based show poster featuring all info in the caption above.  The poster itself has a magenta and violet gradient background. There is a translucent cloud graphic in the lower third of the poster with the Clean Air Club logo in the top right corner.

Another great community event is coming up on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026 at 10 AM, when the LA City Council will introduce a commendatory resolution for the annual recognition of March 15 as International Long COVID Awareness Day and a motion to light City Hall teal. PHAN is delighted to join Clean Air LA and other allied organizations to be a co-sponsor of the campaign to get the city of Los Angeles to introduce this resolution. You can watch the resolution introduction live on YouTube or on LA City View. If you're in Los Angeles, you can join supporters at City Hall: John Ferraro Council Chamber, Room 340, 200 North Spring St, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

 

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 Saturday: The Little Zoom Writers Room hosts a weekly co-writing space open to all COVID realists. Check their welcome page for more info.

 

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. Full info at Celebrate845.com/COVIDCreativeCoalition. 

 

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 22, 2026: PHAN and Air Support Project will host a discussion about dealing with cancer and COVID. 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.

 

February 28, 2026: The Black Long COVID Experience will host a Black Long COVID Bingo Night at 3pm ET! This is a fundraiser for Chimére L. Sweeney's Black Long COVID Experience project. Play for a chance to win $50, and to help provide mutual aid support to a Black disabled and/or chronically ill community member. More details on her website.

 

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.

From The Sick Times article about COVID-conscious musicians and performers (linked below): yuniVERSE performs in a high quality mask while opening for Purity Ring in 2025, Bobby Nicholas III

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 Bluesky.

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

 

February 13, 2026: Staff members at the NIAID, the United States's premier infectious-disease research institute, have been instructed to remove the words "biodefense" and "pandemic preparedness" from the institute's web pages, according to e-mails Nature has obtained. 

 

February 16, 2026: A large population-based study from the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control suggests that COVID-19 infection is associated with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes in unvaccinated and severely ill patients, with elevated risk persisting for up to 3 years after infection.

 

February 17, 2026: COVID-19 genetic material was frequently detected in hospital air during community outbreaks, even in well-ventilated settings, according to a new study published in Respiratory Medicine.

 

February 17, 2026: A person carrying the measles virus traveled through St Louis Lambert International Airport on Feb 7th for two hours.

 

February 17, 2026: From The Sick Times, a story about how some COVID-conscious musicians and other performers are working to prevent their events from spreading more infections.

 

February 18, 2026: The FDA has reversed its decision to reject the Moderna mRNA flu vaccine and now says it will accept Moderna's application to review the vaccine.

 

February 18, 2026: A moving and informative first-person account from a Long COVID survivor in The Guardian: “The unbearably tricky thing about the condition is that it’s the culmination of a million moving parts. Even though most Covid longhaulers will only ever exhibit a handful, there are more than 200 possible symptoms, and treating one often means off-balancing another. Once one internal system starts to dysregulate, the rest tend to fall out in suit. This domino effect is predictable, but that doesn’t make it easy to treat, prevent or even diagnose.”

 

February 19, 2026: A new research study shows that a “universal” vaccine may protect against all respiratory diseases including COVID and influenza.

on the lighter side…

Credit: The Vertlartnic

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