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“I wear a mask because I’m immunocompromised and want to try my best to stay as healthy as I can!”—Behind the KN95 is Sarah Cosico @sarahcosico, a talented illustrator at the New York ComicCon! 

Photo courtesy Mask Together America.

Your PHAN Newsletter for October 16, 2026

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

 

National Hispanic Heritage Month just ended in the US, having started on September 15 and ending on October 15. We recognize that COVID and chronic illness have hit the Hispanic community especially hard, and we're working to support Hispanic communities. To close out National Hispanic Heritage Month, we spoke with Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD who treats Long COVID patients about how and why she became a doctor. See the item below.

 

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!

New Podcast Episode: Lindsay Briggs, Professor of Public Health at Chico State University, California

We're delighted to present our sixth podcast episode, with guest Lindsay Briggs, PhD, a tenured faculty member in the Department of Public Health (PBHL) at California State University, Chico. Dr. Briggs graduated from Indiana University’s School of Public Health in 2011 and holds both a PhD in Health Behavior and an MPH with a concentration in Behavioral Health. She has pursued feminism, equity, and social justice her entire life and is passionate about working across disciplines to promote social justice in the field of public health. 

 

Dr. Briggs has been masking in her classes since the beginning of the pandemic and is one of the few instructors still consistently masking on campus. Her dissertation research focused on the social response to HIV/AIDS, and she discussed several similarities that she's seeing between her research work and the current pandemic. We were thrilled to be able to speak with her and are confident you will enjoy the recording, available on YouTube and Spotify.

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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 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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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. The conference will be recorded and a link to the recording will be sent to everyone who registered. In-person registration closes October 20, 2026. 

 

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.

 

PHAN is proud to be a gold-level sponsor for this conference and we encourage everyone who is interested in clean air to attend in person or online. We believe that the work being done by Safer Air Project in Australia can be replicated and adapted for other countries.

 

To close out National Hispanic Heritage Month, we asked Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, MD, for her thoughts. Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez is a life-long resident of southern Texas and chairs the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. Her specialties include brain injury and Long COVID.

 

When I was little, I always looked up to my doctors. I had Dr. Bujanda, family medicine, and Dr. JJ Saenz, pediatrics. They were very caring and were the type of doctors that called the next day to check in on me. There are no other doctors in my family, but I was a good student and I liked science, so I wanted to be a doctor just like the ones I looked up to. And my parents, who are teachers, would tell me not to be a teacher.

 

My patients inspire me to keep going. I’m a very empathetic person and I want to be able to help as many people as possible. I’m very passionate about what I do. Finally, I really am passionate about health equity and making sure as many people get the right kind of rehabilitation they deserve. That is because my grandfather had a stroke when I was younger and didn’t get proper rehab for it despite being a veteran and having Medicare insurance.

 

To my 10 year-old so I would say: Don’t be so stressed out. Get your high functioning ADHD treated earlier. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

 

Thank you, Dr. Verduzco-Gutierrez, for your care and advocacy!

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 12, 2026: From the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative: 

“PMC COVlD Update, Oct 12, 2026 :

🔸Levels revised upward for a double-peak

🔸39-state outbreak (see ALT) 

🔸PMC estimates 750,000 new daily infections, & 1 in 65 people actively infectious 

🔸1st time starting Oct w/rising levels since 2020

 

“States with observed outbreaks include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawai’i, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. Additional states with poor monitoring likely have outbreaks based on high levels in bordering counties in adjacent states."
 

 

October 9, 2026: From The Sick Times: Commentary: How I built a COVID-safer school that’s become the heart of a more caring community.

 

October 12, 2026: From CIDRAP: Long COVID symptoms may be linked to the bacterial mix in the mouth and lungs. 

 

October 13, 2026: From HLN: 1 in 25 Belgians suffer from Long COVID: The Senate will today approve a resolution containing 53 recommendations for a coordinated care for patients with long-term COVID, which should provide a framework for the condition.

 

October 13, 2026: From Politico: USDA shelved a bird flu inoculation strategy after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr criticized it.

October 14, 2026: From the Canadian government: Canada's respiratory health dashboard says COVID-19 levels are currently "moderate." 

 

October 14, 2026: From the Pennsylvania Department of Public Health: their dashboard reports 86 new measles cases, bringing the statewide total to 1,222. So far, 225 people in the state have been hospitalized with measles.

 

October 15, 2026: From CIDRAP: A new material may let masks recharge their electrostatic charge using normal indoor light or sunlight.

 

October 16, 2026: From the Mississippi Free Press: Flu season is ramping up earlier than usual.  

 

 

Clean Air Club of Chicago posts COVID-safer events to their Instagram page approximately twice a month.

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 show on November 7.

 

Streaming online through 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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