February 2025 Newsletter

Greetings, public health PHANs! We’re thrilled to bring your our February 2025 newsletter: an update on our SAFER project to develop a global resources directory for COVID-conscious folks, a survey asking for your input on what you’d like to see in the SAFER project (have you taken the survey yet?), a request for volunteers in lots of areas, an essay from reporter and Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. patient Julia Doubleday, a blog post from our communications manager about her route to becoming COVID-conscious, and a spotlight on the weekly “PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Pals” online Zoom meetings.

 

Come and check out what we’re working on!

 

update on our “safer” global resources directory for covid-conscious folks

We’re deep into development of one of our first projects: SAFER, a global resources directory for COVID-conscious folks, anyone who wants to protect themselves from airborne illnesses, and anyone interested in clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. tools. The directory will list advocacy and support organizations, businesses, healthcare providers, mask blocs, clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. clubs, and other related businesses and groups around the world. Our goal is for SAFER to help anyone find the COVID-safe and clean-air providers and resources they need, both locally and online, through a search function or with a map. This data will all be free with no account or login required, and we’ll be happy to share our data back with anyone.

 

Much of this information exists on other websites or lists or maps already, but it’s scattered and not always easy to find. We’ve contacted dozens of site and list owners to allow us to use their information in our directory, and we’ve gathered over 3500 listings from sources around the world, including COVID Action Map, the COVID Advocacy Groups spreadsheet, and MaskBloc.org’s list of mask bloc groups. We also plan to grow the directory with new listings as well as keeping the existing listings up to date, via a submission form on our website that we’ll make available shortly. And we’ll create a team of people to vet all entries and updates and then make the changes to the directory. 

 

We’re so excited about this project and can’t wait to make it available to everyone! 

More details coming soon!

Take our survey on our “SAFER” global resources directory

If you would like to shape how our SAFER global resources directory project will work, we’d love to hear from you! We’re looking for your thoughts on how you would use the SAFER directory and what kinds of information would be most useful in our survey on our website. We’re asking every PHAN advocate to fill out the survey then share it with your COVID-conscious friends and networks. THANK YOU so much for your input!

guest essay from julia doubleday about living with long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.

Julia Doubleday was a political consultant, campaign manager, and COVID reporter who became infected with the SARS-2 virus in November 2023 and later developed Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.. The effects of this disease have disabled her and caused her to become unable to work a standard job, which dramatically changed her life. She shared her story in a terrific essay on our blog: “Fallout: Living with Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.”. This is a wonderful essay to share with others who might not understand the havoc that Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. can wreak on one’s life.

You can read more of Julia’s writing at her Substack and Patreon.

Blog post on a roundabout journey to becoming covid-conscious

Our communications manager Theresa O’Connor shares her story of a winding route to becoming COVID-conscious: before the pandemicA global outbreak of a disease. hit, she never masked, then started masking when COVID hit the U.S., then stopped masking when everyone around her did, then went back to masking consistently and avoiding gatherings when a friend virtually shook her awake. Her story shows that some people who aren’t masking can be convinced by someone they trust who shows them what COVID can do to them. 

We’re seeking volunteers!

If you’re interested in volunteering, we’re ramping up quickly and would love to have you on our team! We’re looking for folks in the following areas: 

 

Communications: social media, graphic designers, writers, storytellers, fundraisers

 

SAFER: people who can call and vet businesses and organizations; people who can organize spreadsheets, look up URLs and find addresses, locations, download images, etc.; and website/Wordpress developers

 

CLEAN/CLEAR: fullstack developers, AI (Deepseek, LLM trainers, etc), researchers, NLP experts, psychiatrists

 

AIRWISE: Game Developers (Unity preferred) who understand physics engines

 

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

Thank you to everyone who’s considering volunteering with us – we really appreciate it!

LATEST NEWS

Feb. 27, 2025: King County, Washington confirms first measles case of the year. “A King County infant has tested positive for measles in the year’s first confirmed case in a Washington resident. The child might have been exposed to the highly contagious disease while traveling abroad, King County’s public health department said in a Thursday notice. It’s possible other people who were near the infant in certain public places around the county, including Seattle Children’s hospital, could have also been exposed between Feb. 20-25, the statement said.”

 

Feb. 26, 2025: First measles death reported in Texas as Kennedy downplays the outbreak. “The child’s death, the first from the disease in a decade in the United States, was confirmed by Katherine Wells, director of public health at the health department in Lubbock, Texas. The child had not been vaccinated against the measles. The outbreak has so far infected at least 124 people — mostly children — in rural West Texas.”

 

Feb. 26th, 2025: U.S. Health Secretary freezes $460 million Vaxart COVID vaccine deal for review.  “The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has halted a multimillion-dollar contract initiated by the Biden administration to develop a new COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness. vaccine. The move affects Vaxart Inc., the American biotech company working on an oral vaccine…The stop-work order was issued on Friday, affecting a contract with Vaxart, which was scheduled to begin clinical trials with 10,000 participants on Monday.”

 

Feb. 26th, 2025: FDA meeting to choose flu vaccine composition canceled without explanation. “A March meeting of outside advisers to the United States Food and Drug Administration to discuss the composition of flu vaccines for this fall’s flu season has been canceled, a member of the advisory committee told CNN…[Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee] said it wasn’t clear who directed the meeting to be cancelled or why, and said it’s also not clear now how flu vaccine manufacturers will get guidance on the composition of seasonal flu vaccines.”

Community spotlight: pandemicA global outbreak of a disease. pals

If you’re looking for an online COVID-conscious community, the weekly “PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Pals” Zoom meeting might be a good event to check out. Every Saturday, the PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Collab hosts their “PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Pals” meeting on Zoom, at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern. Shortly before each meeting, they post the Zoom link in their “Weekly Guide Doc”, which also includes their community guidelines. The PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Collab welcomes anyone who’s COVID-aware to call into the PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Pals meeting, which usually has over a dozen informal breakout groups for various populations and interests, so you can likely find one that suits you. Check out their website to learn more.

Some fun from The vertlartnic…

how you can support us

If you’re able to donate, we gladly accept donations of any size. Your donation goes towards the projects we’re developing and to pay a small but mighty team who are making it all happen. Click here to donate.

 

Another way to help support us is to follow us on social media and share our posts, on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Following us, liking our posts, and sharing our posts with your networks on social media or with friends and groups by email will help increase our visibility. Thank you for following us and sharing our posts!