Photo of Karina Halevy (@occasionally.original), an aspiring researcher, educator, and performing artist living with Long COVlD (LC). Photo credit: Mask Together America.

Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a healthy and safe March so far. This is our monthly newsletter for March, 2026, with news of our upcoming discussion in April on “COVID, Clean Air, and the Performing Arts” and “Stress Management”, plus our request for proposals for reducing transmission of airborne pathogens, an upcoming interview with Julie Lam of Mask Together America, and news and articles about COVID, other airborne pathogens, and clean air. 

 

You can manage your subscriptions from the “manage preferences” link at the bottom of this email. And you can support us by liking, sharing, and commenting on our social media posts on Bluesky, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. It really helps our visibility when you engage with our posts and follow our accounts.

Reflections on Long COVID Awareness Month

This is the sixth year for many COVID long-haulers, including the folks we talked to in both of our Zoom discussions this month about Long COVID. We're heartbroken at how many people are affected and how much their lives have been devastated, not just physically but emotionally, socially, and financially. But we're heartened at what seems to be an increased awareness of Long COVID and the importance of clean air in the general media and populace. Time Magazine recently published a report on “post-viral” syndromes, including Long COVID, and Bloomberg recently published an excerpt from a new book “After COVID: The Health Impacts That Will Last Generations”, about the long term impact of COVID. More cities recognized Long COVID Awareness Day this year, and more people are talking about the indoor air quality policies that need to be implemented to prevent people from getting COVID and Long COVID. We're hearing about several promising technologies like a better and quieter fan that can be used in Corsi-Rosenthal-type boxes, and a sensor being developed that can detect COVID particles in the air. We know dealing with Long COVID and staying healthy are struggles for so many people, but we are seeing some movement and we're hopeful that awareness is increasing, if ever so slowly.

 

We're working hard on increasing awareness with our newsletters, social media, and our twice-monthly Zoom discussions (see items below). We're also working on some great software tools that will help educate people about COVID and give people information about clean-air-aware businesses and organizations. And we're very close to publishing our podcast! We're hoping to release the first episode next week, so stay tuned for that. 

 

We hope you all are staying as safe and well as you can be. Thanks so much for supporting our work.

March 31 is the Deadline To Apply for our RFP For Reducing Transmission of Indoor 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 31, 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 proposal process? Email us at proposals@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, on “COVID, Clean Air, and the Performing Arts”. Our guests include performing artists holocene and Nina Wildflower on their experiences with being clean-air-aware while they're performing, and 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 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 hope you'll find this discussion enlightening. If you have ideas for topics or guests for future Zoom discussions, email us at info@phan.global.

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On March 31, NURA Community, a social network for people with Long COVID, ME/CFS and related conditions, 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.

Makers' Spotlight: Chris Covell

This is the final week for Chris Covell's generous donation campaign for PHAN! Chris is a creator and Long COVID survivor who makes wonderfully cheeky and bold art related to Long COVID, and we are delighted and honored 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 31, 2026: NURA Community will host a discussion with Julie Lam, founder and director of Mask Together America. See our item about it above. RSVP. 

 

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 4, 2026: Roundtable discussion on denial and collective care in the age of pandemics. 6pm British Standard Time (1pm ET), sponsored by Healing Justice London. 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.

 

May 25-31, 2026: World Mask Week, where everyone is encouraged to commit to masking up as often as possible for just one week. From the celebrate845 website: “At its simplest, Mask Week asks folks to commit to masking up for collective health for 1 week. Bigger picture, Mask Week is so many things—an invitation to co-ideate with folks inside or outside your region, a tangible solidarity action, a vessel to meet like-minded folks, a way to truly embody intersectional values, and so much more.” 

March 23, 2026:  The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative has resumed its updates and is reporting that COVID-19 transmission levels have plummeted nationally as we shift from the 12th wave toward a relative "lull." Over half the states have "Very Low" relative transmission, per the CDC. 

 

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March 17, 2026: From Defend Public Health: RFK Jr discourages getting kids vaccinated for influenza. 

 

March 18, 2026: Avian flu has been detected at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County north of San Francisco, about 100 miles north of Año Nuevo State Park where most of the cases have been detected to date.

 

March 21, 2026: From Boston 25 News: the ninth pediatric death from flu in Massachusetts has been reported. There’s been a total of 322 influenza deaths in the Commonwealth since August 2025, with 313 deaths among adults.  

 

March 22, 2026: From the BBC: “Long Covid sufferers have been abandoned and forgotten about. When Darren Parkinson contracted Covid in 2021 it was just ‘like a bad flu’, he says; a few days in bed and then he was back on his feet. But five years later, his fatigue is so all-encompassing that he is unable to work, socialise or even shower more than once a week.”  

 

March 22, 2026: From Clinically Vulnerable Families (UK), the organizers there recount their experience with testifying in front of the UK Covid Inquiry, which is an independent public inquiry established to examine the UK's response to and impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and which recently published its report. "The science that our members have lived by—the understanding of airborne transmission, the importance of clean air, the right to wear a mask—is now recognised in an important official report, confirmed by the Chair of a national public inquiry, part of the permanent record of this pandemic. The experiences that our members shared, sometimes at personal cost and often with considerable courage, are in that record too."

 

March 23, 2026: From CIDRAP: A meningitis outbreak associated with the University of Kent in England now has 20 confirmed cases and 9 probable cases of invasive meningococcal disease, down from 34 reported over the weekend. Several suspected cases were downgraded after further testing, and the death toll remains at two.  

 

March 25, 2026: From Time Magazine, doctors and scientists are becoming increasingly aware of "post-viral" syndromes from many viruses including COVID. 

 

March 25, 2026: Up to 60% of U.S. healthcare workers may be struggling with Long COVID four years after infection. “Four years after infection with the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 strain, up to 60% of health care workers (HCWs) in Switzerland still reported at least one COVID-19 symptom, although the number of participants dwindled over time, Swiss researchers write in Infection.”

 

March 25, 2026: From Parade Magazine, a story about how getting COVID again is more dangerous than most people realize. 

 

March 26, 2026: From the Pandemic Center at Brown University's School of Public Health: Over the past week, the US has had 88 measles cases across 11 states. That is 38 fewer cases than reported last week (126). However, the average number of new weekly cases reported in March is more than 118. If that average number of cases continues, the 2026 total for the first three months of the year (currently 1,741) will surpass the 2025 12-month total (2,128) in four weeks. According to the CDC, 92% of people with measles in 2026 have been unvaccinated or have unknown vaccine status.

on the lighter side…

Credit: The Vertlartnic

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