Photo of Nic @nickelpin and friends gathered as LA City Hall glowed teal for the first time to recognize International Long COVlD Awareness Day on March 15. Photo credit: Mask Together America.

Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a healthy and safe March so far. This is our weekly newsletter for March 20, 2026, with a recap of our discussion on Young Adults Living with Long COVID yesterday, our upcoming discussion on COVID, Clean Air, and the Performing Arts, plus our request for proposals for reducing transmission of airborne pathogens, highlights of Long COVID Awareness Day and month events, and news and articles about COVID, other airborne pathogens, and clean air. 

 

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We're accepting proposals to Reduce Transmission of Airborne pathogens

We're excited to announce a call for proposals for projects that will measurably reduce airborne pathogens. We're inviting proposals for high impact projects designed to produce measurable and verifiable reductions in indoor airborne pathogen transmission. The deadline for submissions is March 31st, 2026. 

 

We're doing this during Long COVID Awareness Month because we know that the only way to avoid getting Long COVID is to not get COVID. For more information, read our blog post, plus a full description on our Request for Proposals page, and our press release which we encourage you share with others. Questions about the proposals process? Email us at proposals@phan.global.

 

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On Thursday, March 19, we hosted a really fascinating and inspiring discussion about young adults living with Long COVID with guest speakers Ariana Zwern and Marisa Swanson. The recording of the event is now available on YouTube. Zwern and Swanson were both infected by COVID in their early 20s and are now disabled by it, before their adult lives have really even begun. They've had different experiences with healthcare providers, treatments, and progression of their conditions, but they've both had to fight very hard to get the support and treatment they need. We think you'll really enjoy this discussion. If you have ideas for topics or guests, email us at info@phan.global.

next Zoom Discussion on April 2, 2026: COVID, Clean Air, and the Performing Arts

We're hosting a Zoom discussion on April 2, 2026 at noon ET, along with Air Support Project, when we'll speak with several performers including holocene and Nina Wildflower on their experience with being clean-air-aware while they're performing, and with event creator Kyle Stevens on his experience with providing clean-air events. This should be a terrific discussion and we hope you'll join us. Register in advance. You'll need to have a Zoom account in order to register.

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On March 25, 2026, the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center will host a celebration of life for noted disability activist Alice Wong, who passed away last November. Wong was an American disability rights activist and writer based in San Francisco, California. She was a tireless advocate for amplifying the voices and experiences of the disabled community, and her career focused on challenging systemic ableism through storytelling, advocacy, and community organizing. The program will be livestreamed on their YouTube page. This livestream will then be followed by a virtual reception that requires Zoom registration. 

Makers' Spotlight: Chris Covell

Chris Covell is a creator and Long COVID survivor who makes wonderfully cheeky and bold art related to Long COVID. We are delighted that he's donating a portion of his profits during March 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. 

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.

 

March 25, 2026: Lung Health Advocacy Day in Springfield, IL. Respiratory Health Association (RHA) will once again be bringing Lung Advocacy Day to the Illinois state capitol on March 25. Throughout the day RHA staff and volunteers will meet with elected officials to advocate for important lung health issues.

 

March 31, 2026: NURA Community will host a discussion with Julie Lam, founder and director of Mask Together America. RSVP. Lam will discuss recent developments in layered mitigation policy globally, how receptive policymakers have been to these topics in her own experience, and what her predictions are for the future of masking advocacy when it comes to airborne pathogens. She will also field questions about her experiences as an NIH Recover representative, particularly relating to Long Covid research developments presented at the recent NIH Recover Cycle 2 Meeting.

 

April 2, 2026: PHAN and Air Support Project will co-host a discussion on COVID, Clean Air, and the performing arts. See our item about it above. Register in advance.

 

April 19, 2026: PHAN and Air Support project will co-host a discussion on COVID and stress awareness. More details to follow. Register in advance. 

 

May 18-22, 2026: The 12th International Conference on Indoor Air Quality, Ventilation

& Energy Conservation in Buildings takes place at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Early-bird registration has been extended to March 31.

March 16, 2026:  There is no update for the week of March 16 from the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative. They are updating how historical data are handled in the model, as well as incorporating some minor updates for the graphics. Updates will resume soon (Mar 20-23). Transmission is following the forecasted decline.

 

March 17, 2026: Texas measles cases for the year are now at 136, most of those in federal detention centers. The largest concentration, with 99 cases, is in a single federal detention facility in Hudspeth County, as of March 11. 

 

March 18, 2026: A new study applying machine learning to US death certificates from March 2020 to December 2021 indicates  a high likelihood that 19% more COVID-19 deaths occurred in the US than were officially reported, with approximately 155,536 deaths that were likely due to COVID-19 but not reported as such. 

 

March 18, 2026: Sixteen states are reporting high or very high flu activity: Oregon, Idaho, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina. 

 

March 18, 2026: Michigan childhood vaccination rate drops under RFK Jr's influence. The analysis focused on the rate at which toddlers in the state completed a series of seven vaccinations—including the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot as well as whooping cough and hepatitis B—before their third birthday, a benchmark set by federal health officials. The series completion rate fell nearly three percentage points, to 66.5%, from January 2025 to January this year. That decline is about 13 times greater than the average annual change over the last 18 years. 

 

March 19, 2026: From the Pandemic Center at Brown University's School of Public Health: The US recorded 126 new measles cases over the past week across 13 states, 22 fewer than were recorded last week. So far in March, the US has reported, on average, 128 cases per week, compared to 132 cases per week in February. Texas and Utah continue to drive weekly case counts this week, as they have done since early March. In total, the US has reported 1,653 cases of measles so far this year, and we are quickly approaching the 2025 total of 2,128 cases. If the US continues to average 128 new cases a week, the country would surpass the 2025 total in five weeks.

on the lighter side…

Credit: The Vertlartnic

support our work!

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