Behind the 3M Aura N95 respirator is Danielle @zelue, a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner who has primary immunodeficiency and Long COVlD. Photo credit: Mask Together America.

Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a healthy and safe May so far. This is our weekly newsletter for May 8, 2026, with news of our Zoom discussion recording on May 5 about traveling while being clean-air-aware, our next Zoom discussion on May 24 about clean air in healthcare settings, publication of our first podcast episode, plus events related to COVID and clean air, 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.

‪

Thanks to everyone who participated in today's Zoom discussion on Clean Air and Traveling co-hosted with Air Support Project. The recording is now available. We heard some terrific stories and advice from our guests Julie Lam of Mask Together America, mask advocate Daniell Kinder, and COVID advocate Keith Muise.

Our next Zoom discussion will be on Sunday, May 24, when we'll talk about being clean-air-aware and COVID-safe in healthcare settings. Register in advance for our May 24 discussion. More info to come!

‪

As announced last week, we're delighted to present our new podcast, Breathe This, which you can watch or listen to on YouTube and Spotify. We'll talk about clean indoor air, airborne pathogens, how COVID and long COVID have affected individuals and our society, and how you can protect yourself from airborne pathogens, both individually and as a community. 

 

Our first episode is with Mask Together America founder Julie Lam (pictured above), who talks about her experience with COVID and long COVID, how she founded and developed Mask Together America, and what the future of public health messaging looks like. Please subscribe to help boost our visibility. Thanks for watching and listening!

‪

World Mask Week, May 25-31, 2026, is a global event for talking about masking, sharing pictures about masking, and helping those who may have stopped masking come back to it without shame or judgement. Organizations around the world will share their videos and pictures on social media. PHAN will take part with a special Zoom discussion on Thursday, May 28, 2026, about mask blocs: what they are, how they work, and how you can find one near you to get free or low-cost masks. You can register in advance, and more information about that discussion will follow. We're also working on some fun videos for that week. Look for #WorldMaskWeek on all of the major social media platforms. 

Ongoing Meetings

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.

 

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.

 

Every Tuesday & Sunday: WHN hosts weekly Zoom “Kids' Connect Zone” meetings on Tuesdays and Sundays for kids, teens, and families who want to connect through COVID-conscious activities, games, and discussions. Find out more at the WHN website.
 

Saturday meetings are at 11AM ET. Join Celebrate845 on Zoom for COVID Creative Coalition community meetings. No artistic experience required. Great for visual artists, writers, graphic designers, or folks interested in Street Team efforts. “Non-Hudson Valley folks are welcomed to attend, connect & get inspired, but we'll be centering building our efforts in the HV. We are down to host breakout rooms by locale!” More info at Celebrate845.com/COVIDCreativeCoalition. 

 

The folks at The Little Zoom Writers Room host a weekly co-writing space open to all COVID realists. Check their welcome page for more info or their account on Instagram.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Ongoing events: Ben Collins, who performs as Nina Wildflower, hosts a weekly online open mic for COVID-informed performers. Each show has a designated theme but all themes are optional, as they are just a way to keep things interesting for regular performers. If you play one song that is on-theme, then you are on-theme! He's hosting these performances via the Facebook group "Still Coviding - Virtual Meetups" (private group, apply for membership). Sign up for weekly emails at ninawildflower@yahoo.com.

 

Every month: SF Neo-Futurists hosts Infinite Wrench mask-required performances on the first Saturday of each month. Infinite Wrench is a set of 30 plays in 60 minutes, new plays every week. While audience members will be required to stay masked throughout the show, performers may invite select audience members to unmask for plays that involve audience participation. All performers test weekly for COVID-19 to keep themselves and the audiences safer. Extra masks will be available for those who need them. Upcoming masked shows: June 6, August 1, Sept 5, Oct 3, Nov 7.

 

May 13, 2026: Join EPA's Healthy and Efficient School Environments Grantees for a discussion hosted by the American Lung Association to learn about programs, trainings, resources and funds available to K-12 public, charter, and tribal schools nationwide to improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency.  

 

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.

 

May 19, 2026: The Geneva Health Forum, in collaboration with Air Club, the Ministère de la Santé (France), the Pandemic Center at Brown University, and the University of Melbourne, are pleased to announce a high-level symposium: World Health Assembly High-Level Dialogue on Healthy Indoor Air, at the Campus Biotech, Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, at 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM CET. Organized as a side event of the World Health Assembly, this high-level dialogue will bring together global leaders, Ministers of Health, UN agencies, and technical experts.

 

May 24, 2026: PHAN and Air Support Project will co-host an online discussion about clean air in healthcare settings. Register in advance.

 

May 25-31, 2026: World Mask Week, during which everyone is encouraged to commit to mask in public for just one week. See the item above.

 

May 25, 2026: World Mask Week dance marathon on Twitch. 12-hours of COVID-informed DJ sets! 11:00 AM EST - 11:00 PM EST on Twitch. Follow @MaskWeekMarathon on Instagram and the World Mask Week website for updates. If you'd like to support or co-sponsor this event, please contact organizers here. 

 

May 26, 2026: The Toronto Home Energy Network and Clean Indoor Air Toronto will host a webinar, "Healthy Air at Home: What You Can Monitor, Filter, and Fix", presented by Clean Indoor Air Toronto's founder, Louise Hidinger, PhD.

 

May 28, 2026: PHAN and Air Support Project will co-host an online discussion about mask blocs. See the item above. Register in advance.

 

June 9, 2026: The Air We Share: Shaping healthier indoor air quality in Europe and beyond. The IDEAL Cluster Summit in Brussels is bringing together seven Horizon Europe research and innovation projects, and it will convene policymakers, researchers, industry leaders and public authorities.
 

June 25, 2026: phytocene, a clean-air-aware singer, songwriter, and producer living in Paris will host a mask-requested album release party in Paris for her new album.

May 4, 2026:  The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative reports that estimated SARS-CoV-2 levels are now at their lowest since July 13, 2021. All states and territories have “low” or “very low” transmission, with the exceptions of Nebraska (2 sites reporting), Guam (2-week-old data), and West Virginia (one site reporting). Note that state-level midpoints can obscure within-state variation. There are isolated hot spots throughout the U.S.

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

April 24, 2026: Editorial from The Sick Times: We need masks in healthcare. Now. 

 

May 1, 2026: From ABC News: How South Carolina beat the measles outbreak. "Public health experts told ABC News that the combination of a strong vaccination push, people following isolation and quarantine orders, and an awareness campaign helped beat back the disease." 

 

May 2, 2026: From local news source County10: First case of measles reported in Wyoming for 2026. 

 

May 4, 2026: A University of California, Riverside study reports that cells in the earliest stages of human development could be susceptible to infection by SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, offering new insight into how the virus interacts with developing human tissues and why that may matter for pregnancy research. 

 

May 5, 2026: The US Food and Drug Administration has blocked the publication of several studies that found COVID-19 and shingles vaccines to be safe, according to a spokesperson from the Department of Health and Human Services. 

 

May 8, 2026: Hantavirus, a rare but deadly virus carried by rodents, has killed three people and infected eight amid an ongoing outbreak on a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean, prompting concerns about a possible pandemic and comparisons to COVID-19. The Andes strain of hantavirus, which is found mainly in Argentina and Chile in South America,, is unique in that it’s the only strain known to cause human-to-human transmission. Based on available information, the WHO currently assesses the risk to the global population from this outbreak to be low.

on the lighter side…

Credit: The Vertlartnic

support our work!

If you want to support our work, please donate! Your donations will go towards the projects we're developing and to pay a small team of staffers making it all happen.

 

If you're interested in volunteering, we'd love to have you! We're looking for folks interested in:

If you match any of those needs, or you have other skills or experience that you think might help our work, we'll find a way for you to help! Fill out our contact form on our website and one of us will get back to you as soon as we can.