Behind the 3M Aura N95 is Tesla @tesladrianne, co-organizer of @vancouverstillcares, who recently wrote an op-ed that’s been published in @TheSickTimes— sharing her frightful experience waking up to maskless phlebotomists after passing out. Photo credit: Mask Together America.

Weekly Newsletter, May 15, 2026

Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a healthy and safe May so far. This week we have news of our next Zoom discussion on May 24 about clean air in healthcare settings, another Zoom discussion on May 28 about mask blocs, publication of our next podcast episode with Jonathan Howard, World Mask Week which runs from May 25 to May 31, plus events related to COVID and clean air, and news 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.

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Join our next Zoom discussion on Sunday, May 24, at 5pm ET when we'll talk about clean indoor air in healthcare settings: how to stay safe from airborne pathogens in healthcare settings, how to deal with unaware or hostile healthcare personnel, how patients can advocate for themselves in healthcare settings, and what some doctors offices and hospitals are doing to ensure clean air for patients. Our guest speakers will be Maria Walls, a nurse practitioner in St Louis who sees Long COVID patients, and Donna Zelazny, a nurse with Long COVID. Register in advance. You'll need a free Zoom account in order to register. The meeting will be recorded and published to our YouTube channel shortly afterwards. Subscribe to the channel to get notified of new videos.

 

We'll also have a special Zoom discussion on May 28 as part of World Mask Week when we'll talk about mask blocs: what they are, how they work, how you can find one near you, and for those with time and energy on their hands, how you can start your own mask bloc. Register in advance, and as always, you'll need a free Zoom account in order to register.

 

If you didn't get to attend the Zoom discussion on Clean Air and Traveling on May 5, the recording is available on our YouTube channel. 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.

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Our second episode of “Breathe This” is now available on YouTube and Spotify. We spoke with Dr. Jonathan Howard, physician and author of “We Want Them Infected” and “Everyone Else is Lying to You”, about his experience at Bellevue Hospital in New York City when COVID first hit the U.S., and about his documentation of the disinformation about public health that's run rampant. Dr. Howard is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health and the Chief of Neurology at Bellevue Hospital. He is the author of Cognitive Errors and Diagnostic Mistakes: A Case-Based Guide to Critical Thinking in Medicine as well as several textbooks in neurology. He writes on social media about COVID, vaccines, and the disinformation about public health that's being spread by many so-called experts. He has been interested in vaccines since long before the pandemic.

 

Our first episode was with Mask Together America founder Julie Lam, 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. We'll have another episode in a few weeks, so please subscribe to stay informed of new videos and also to help boost our visibility. Thanks for watching and listening!

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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, see item above. 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.
 

Join Celebrate845 on Zoom for COVID Creative Coalition community meetings on Saturdays in May at 11AM ET. 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 2:30pm PT / 4:30pm CT / 5:30pm ET until 4pm PT / 6pm CT / 8pm ET for COVID-safe adults to create art or just chat and be with other aware folks. Check their Instagram bio for the current Zoom link.

 

 

Ongoing weekly online open-mic 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 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. 

 

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 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 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 2, 2026: Minnesota Dept. of Health will host a webinar: “Statewide Conversation on Post-Viral Chronic Illness: A Day of Learning, Connection, and Action”. It takes place on June 2, 2026, 9AM - 2PM CT on Zoom. Though the event is MN‑focused, it is open to all.
 

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.

May 11, 2026:  The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative reports that estimated SARS-CoV-2 levels are at the lowest since July 13, 2021. All states and territories have “low” or “very low” transmission, with the exceptions of Guam and DC. Note that state-level midpoints can obscure within-state variation. There are isolated hot spots throughout the U.S.

 

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May 11, 2026: From Reuters: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Sunday that one of the 17 Americans being repatriated from ​a hantavirus-struck luxury cruise ship has tested “mildly positive” for the ‌Andes strain of the virus while a second has mild symptoms. 

 

May 12, 2026: From Politico: U.S. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is resigning. Top FDA food official Kyle Diamantas will be the acting head of the agency. 

 

May 12, 2026: From The Straits Times: Twelve staff members at a Dutch hospital treating a hantavirus-positive evacuee from the MV Hondius cruise ship are in preventative quarantine after procedures were not followed correctly, the hospital said on May 11. 

 

May 12, 2026: From The BMJ: A new opinion piece in The BMJ argues that the hantavirus outbreak should prompt the WHO to change its default response to the risk of airborne transmission. "The starting point should not be to downplay the risk of airborne transmission until it is definitively proven. The starting point should be the immediate adoption of precautionary measures to reduce airborne transmission." 

 

May 13, 2026: From Nature: An antiviral pill has been shown to prevent COVID-19 in people exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus at home, according to trial results published in the New England Journal of Medicine. From the NEJM article: “Ensitrelvir administered to household contacts of a patient with Covid-19 within 72 hours after symptom onset in the index patient was effective in preventing Covid-19 in the contacts.”

 

May 13, 2026: From Nature: SARS-CoV-2 has been shown to cause endothelial (blood vessel) damage at least one year after infection, regardless of whether the patient has ever experienced any post-COVID symptoms. Soluble thrombomodulin (sTM) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), two established markers of endothelial damage, were significantly elevated in the combined infected group (UOC PCS + LIFE Cov+) versus never-infected controls. Cardiovascular surgeon Harry Spoelstra described it as “COVID-19 leaves detectable, objective blood-vessel and metabolic damage in the bloodstream nearly a year later, even if you feel completely fine and never had Long COVID symptoms.”

 

May 13, 2026: From Scientific American: The incubation period for the Andes strain of hantavirus could be up to 42 days long, much longer than for most viruses, making contact tracing more difficult.

 

May 14, 2025: From CIDRAP: US officials note a handful of new outbreaks of avian flu at poultry facilities. In the past 30 days, the virus has been detected among eight commercial and six backyard flocks, affecting a total of 250,000 birds. 

 

on the lighter side…

Credit: The Vertlartnic

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