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Behind the N95 is Lily (@amanai_chains), a Japanese-American who endured a lengthy struggle to recover from a 2020 infection. Photo courtesy Mask Together America.

Your PHAN Newsletter for October 9, 2026

Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a safe and healthy October. 

 

Happy National Hispanic Heritage Month! This awareness month started on September 15 and runs through to October 15. We recognize that COVID and chronic illness have hit the U.S. Hispanic community especially hard, and we're working to support Hispanic community groups across the U.S.

 

In this issue:

If you have news or events that would be pertinent to our newsletter, or feedback on the newsletter or PHAN's work, email us at info@phan.global. We would love to hear your thoughts!

Long COVID: Voices of Resilience - Online Forum This Afternoon

PHAN is co-sponsoring an important forum produced by Mask Together America in October: “Long COVID: Voices of Resilience,” a forum of Black authors who've written about their experience with Long COVID. The event takes place on October 9, 2026, at 5pm ET. Register in advance.

 

The event will be hosted by Sarah Cahill and Julie Lam, with Becky Ancira Robertson (@beckyancirar), and Victoria Coble (@coble.victoria), founder of @COVIDActionGSO,

acting as emcees. Guests will include: 

PHAN Communications Manager Theresa O'Connor will provide closing remarks. We encourage all public health and COVID-safe advocates to read the works of these authors. Until we address systemic bias and ensure equitable healthcare access, historically marginalized patients will continue to face clinical neglect and exclusion from life-changing clinical trials.

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The recording for our Zoom discussion yesterday with actors Terri Lynne Hudson and Cathryn Hartt is now on available on YouTube. We talked about how COVID has impacted their work in the movie, TV, and theater industries, what kinds of mitigation or lack of mitigations our guests have experienced, and how they're advocating in their own lives to keep themselves and their communities safe.

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Join us and our friends at Air Support Project, Sarah Masih and Melissa Smallwood, on November 12 at noon ET as we delve into the topic of indoor air quality (IAQ) and preventing illness with kids in schools. We'll talk about the range of different polices and standards in different districts in the U.S. and Canada, how air quality is currently being measured, what standards for IAQ or monitoring exist, and what parents and concerned citizens can do to improve the air in their children's or their communities' schools. Our guests will include Tony Colaneri with Illinois Stakeholders for Air Quality in Schools (ISAQS), and Mary Jo Nabuurs, an advocate for clean air in schools in Ontario, Canada. Register in advance. 

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The Safer Air Project will host the Safer Shared Air: Indoor Air, Health & Productivity Conference, to be held in Canberra, Australia, in-person and online on October 28 / October 27 (Americas). Online attendance for community members is being offered for free. PHAN is a gold sponsor for this conference and we encourage everyone interested in clean air to attend in person or online. We're hopeful that the work being done by Safer Air Project in Australia can be replicated and adapted for other countries.

 

The full-day conference will include over a dozen public health and policy experts, as well as representatives from the Australian government, who will speak on indoor air quality as a silent driver of chronic disease; the economic opportunities that exist; and how we can translate the evidence into world-leading, national reform. Attend in-person or online. In-person registration closes October 20, 2026. 

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PHAN contributor Amanda Finley writes about an archaeological site of a five-thousand-year old cemetery where DNA analysis showed that nearly half of the people died from Yersenia pestis (plague), and that tragically a large number of those were children. Amanda reflects on what we're teaching our kids about how they should avoid harmful pathogens, and her conclusion is that we're teaching kids that they don't matter and we need to change that.  Read her whole blog post on our website.

The Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) creates a weekly COVID-19 “heatmap” based on CDC wastewater data and levels (U.S.). The PMC is led by Michael Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA.

October 5, 2026: From the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative: “The US has at least 36 states and territories with COVlD outbreaks. The apparent wave peak has passed, but transmission remains high across much of the country. States with observed outbreaks include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming."
 

Top news stories from the past week:

 

September 28, 2026: From Springer Nature: The securitization of global slow-onset risks/threats: long COVID, a case study. 

 

October 1, 2026: H5N1 bird flu has returned to Midwest poultry farms with multiple turkey operations hit.

 

October 1, 2026: The CDC's vaccine finder tool is broken. The website prompts visitors to enter a 5-digit zip code to find a nearby pharmacy. However, when you enter a zip code and press “search,” the tool displays an error message: “Please enter a valid 5‑digit ZIP Code.” 

 

October 2, 2026: From CIDRAP: Measles outbreaks could leave thousands of people more vulnerable to infectious diseases for up to five years due to measles-induced immune amnesia, in which measles attacks and destroys immune system cells. 

 

October 5, 2026: From CBS News/Philadelphia: The measles outbreak in Pennsylvania is now at over a thousand cases for the year this week, and CDC officials quietly added two of the measles-related deaths in Pennsylvania to their measles data dashboard. 

 

October 5, 2026: From the New York Governor's Office: New York governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for New York in response to the ongoing measles outbreak in the state.

 

October 5, 2026: A researcher in an anti-plague laboratory in Russia died of pneumonia from unknown origins. WHO is seeking information about whether the researcher's death is related to the pneumonic plague. 

 

October 6, 2026: From the New York Times: Texas pediatricians face investigations from Texas attorney general Ken Paxton for vaccinating children. One pediatrician received a letter from his office: "The letter also requested her practice’s vaccine policy, and said that it would not be sufficient to cite the childhood vaccine schedule recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

 

October 7, 2026: From Forbes magazine: Measles outbreaks may be fueling outbreaks of mumps and other diseases, as measles can cause them to lose 11% to 73% of previously acquired antibodies. Current outbreaks are largely thought to be due to waning immunity, as antibody protection declines by 12% per year for mumps.

 

 

Clean Air Club of Chicago posts COVID-safer events to their Instagram page

We're excited about all the mask-required events for Halloween we've seen on social media. If you have a mask-required event you'd like us to include in the newsletter, tag us on whatever platform you're on, or email us at info@phan.global.

Every week theater journalist Charles Lewis III publishes a comprehensive list of COVID-safe events and performances in the San Francisco Bay Area on his Patreon.

 

San Francisco Transgender Film Fest, November 12-14. Attendance will be both online and in-person, with the latter audiences required to be masked with KN95 (masks provided by staff)

 

Last Saturday of every month in the SF Bay Area: Masked Hangout. Once a month, airborne-aware folks in the South Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area meet at 15980 Blossom Hill Rd in Los Gatos for games, puzzles, coloring, and socializing. Email SouthBayMaskedEvents@gmail.com for details and to be added to the mailing list.

 

Monthly in San Francisco: Infinite Wrench. 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: Sept 5, Oct 3, Nov 7.

 

Streaming online trough November 28, 2026: Hystericalfest: women+ ACT out.

A series of short comedies on Women+ & Invisible Disabilities. Tickets available with a suggested donation of $10. With ASL and closed captioning options. Produced by Violet Surprise Theatre, Terri Lynne Hudson (consulting), & Hysterical Productions/Paula Kamen. This is a recording of a live performance that ran Friday, August 28, 2026.

 

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, via the Facebook group "Still Coviding - Virtual Meetups" (private group, apply for membership). Sign up for weekly emails at ninawildflower@yahoo.com.

 

One Click Events will host an online “Illuminate” event to let folks make romantic connections

NEW: Monthly online meetings from One Click Events for virus-informed folks. Meetings include Silent Reading and Social Hour, Game Night, Soft Launch social hours, and Movie Club. 

 

They'll host a special event: “Illuminate: Where Sparks Fly”, on November 7, 2026, 1:00-4:00 Central Time (Chicago). Illuminate is a free, virtual space for COVID-aware folks ages 18+ who are interested in making romantic connections, whatever that means to you. Whether you’re interested in dating for fun, looking for a serious relationship, monogamy, polyamory or something in between - we encourage you to form meaningful connections. You will need to complete a profile by October 26 to participate.

 

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. More info at Celebrate845.com/COVIDCreativeCoalition. 

 

Every Saturday: 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 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.

 

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 Linktree for the current Zoom link.

 

Molly was a professional actor and clown for 30 years in Chicago, and has had fellowships as well as guest lecture and teaching artist positions all over the country. She hosts an in-person and remote class once a month about how to create theatrical performances in a respirator. Sign up for her mailing list to get the remote link.

on the lighter side…

Credit: The Vertlartnic

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