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Behind the KN95 is Patrick Cote, co-host of Punch Up Pod. Photo courtesy Julie Lam/Mask Together America.

Weekly Newsletter, June12, 2026

Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a healthy and safe June so far. This week we have news of an upcoming Zoom discussion on June 28 about the precautionary principle; our most recent podcast episode with long COVID patient and advocate Adam Van Bavel; our recent Zoom discussion on May 28 about mask blocs; events related to COVID and clean air; and news about COVID, other airborne pathogens, and clean air. 

 

If you have news or events that you think would be useful for our newsletter, email us at info@phan.global.

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On Sunday, June 28 at 7:30pm ET, PHAN and Air Support Project will present a live Zoom discussion: “Precautionary Principle”. We'll discuss what it is, how it came into practice, and how it's been virtually abandoned by the healthcare community and by many government public health agencies. Our guest speakers will be Sarah Masih, MBA, MD, executive director of Air Support Project, and Dr. Jonathan Howard, author of We Want Them Infected, the story of how several public health speakers gained power by discarding the precautionary principle. Register in advance. You'll need a free Zoom account in order to register. This event will be recorded and we'll make it available on our YouTube channel.

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Our latest podcast episode is now available with noted long COVID advocate Adam Van Bavel, a fierce advocate for long COVID patients and the founder of Maryland Indoor Air Quality Advocates, an organization working for clean air in schools in Maryland. We talked at length about his Long COVID journey and struggles, and how he's working to improve indoor air quality in Maryland schools. We'll publish that next week, so subscribe to our YouTube and Spotify streams to be notified!

 

Our second episode of Breathe This is also available on YouTube and Spotify, with our guest Dr. Jonathan Howard, physician and author of We Want Them Infected and Everyone Else is Lying to You. We talked 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 has run rampant. 

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As part of World Mask Week (May 25-31), we co-hosted a special Zoom discussion on May 28 with advocates from Air Support Project: All About Mask Blocs. Our guest speakers were Chris Covell, who runs a mask bloc in New York state, and Babs and Max from Mask Bloc Northern Virginia (MaskBlocNoVa). This was a terrific discussion that touched on how their mask blocs got started, how they solicit masks donations or buy them in bulk, and how their communities have responded. You can watch the recording on our YouTube channel.

 

For those of you in northern Virginia or who may have friends or family in the area who need masks, Mask Bloc Northern Virginia has provided a mask request form for anyone in the area to request masks from them. 

 

If you're looking for a mask bloc in another area, check with maskbloc.org, or look for "mask bloc" and your city or area on Instagram. If you're not able to find one in your area, email us or DM us and we'll try to find one near you. 

Ongoing Meetings

The COVID Safe Art Collective meets online every Sunday

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 supporters that meet Monday evenings, plus Sunday mornings for church services. Contact them via Reddit.

 

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 at 11AM ET. No artistic experience required. Great for visual artists, writers, graphic designers, or those interested in Street Team efforts. “Non-Hudson Valley supporters 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 organizers 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 people. Check their Instagram bio for the current Zoom link.

Ben Collins, aka Nina Wildflower, hosts a weekly online open mic show

 

 

Ongoing weekly online open-mic events with Nina Wildflower: 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.

 

Weekly COVID-safe events in the Bay Area: Every week, the CSL3 Patreon page publishes a list of COVID-safe events and performances in the San Francisco Bay Area.

 

Every month in San Francisco: 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 and extra masks will be available for those who need them. Upcoming masked shows: June 6, August 1, Sept 5, Oct 3, Nov 7.

 

June 25, 2026: phytocene, a clean-air-aware singer, songwriter, and producer living in Paris will host a mask-requested album release party and concert in Paris for her new album. She is now also offering tickets to view the event online.

 

June 28, 2026: Clean Air Events presents a COVID-Safe Pride Weekend Concert in Seattle, WA. KN95+ respirators required. Organizers will provide air purifiers, Far UVC devices, and outside air flow. Performers include Kirby Krackle, Shubzilla Bill Beats, and Klop Fen Pop. 100 W. Roy St, Seattle WA. Advance tickets available.

 

 

 

June 14-18, 2026: Indoor Air 2026: The International Society of Indoor Air Quality & Climate will convene its annual conference in Singapore in 2026. 

 

June 28, 2026: PHAN and Air Support Project present a live Zoom discussion: “Precautionary Principle”. See item above.

June 8, 2026: From the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative: the PMC reports that SARS-CoV-2 transmission remains at its lowest levels nationwide since mid-July 2021. This map is now interactive. "Note that on June 1, we officially launched the county-level heat map. It has already clarified two significant outbreaks not readily visible from the CDC state-level heat map. Last week, we saw a surge in Eastern Kentucky, now dissipating. This week, we see that Central/East Texas are surging, and again, this is not visible on the CDC state-level map, which labels the entire state ‘very low’ if 51% of the wastewater sites fall in that range.”

 

June 5, 2026: From Science Daily: The first AI-designed universal coronavirus vaccine has passed the first human trial. The vaccine generated immune responses against multiple coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, SARS, and related bat viruses with pandemic potential.

 

June 9, 2026: From USA Today: Three more patients from the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak have returned to their homes after spending weeks in quarantine. Five U.S. residents returned home last week after monitoring and ten other patients are still being quarantined at the National Quarantine Unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska. Because hantavirus symptoms can take up to 42 days to appear, all 18 passengers had been encouraged to complete the full monitoring period at the facility. UNMC said the three passengers who returned home this week will continue to be monitored for the next two weeks under the jurisdiction of their local and state public health departments. 

 

June 9, 2026: From Focus Taiwan: COVID cases in Taiwan have increased for the third straight week, with outpatient and emergency room visits reaching 1,000 last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday.

 

June 10, 2026: From the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG): the college has released its own set of recommendations for vaccines for pregnant women that differs from the CDC. The ACOG schedule recommends four vaccines be routinely administered during pregnancy: tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza, and COVID-19. Additional vaccines are recommended for higher-risk individuals or those who previously missed vaccines. The CDC’s recommendations for flu and COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy were withdrawn under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr in December 2025. 

 

June 11, 2026: From CIDRAP: Africa CDC recommends stronger screening measures for Ebola at member-state borders. According to the US CDC, the outbreak in the DRC and Uganda has grown to 695 confirmed cases, 138 deaths. The Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group said there was an urgent need for Bundibugyo-specific rapid diagnostic tests, as one of the reasons transmission went undetected for weeks was because tests were looking for only the Zaire Ebolavirus. 

 

on the lighter side…

Credit: The Vertlartnic

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