News weekly update: Dec 12th, 2025

Greetings, public health PHANs! We hope you're having a good December so far. This is our weekly news update with a selection of upcoming events and articles about COVID, other airborne pathogens, and clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles.. We're busy with developing some great software tools, developing our website, creating a podcast, and making connections with people around the world.

If you want to keep receiving this weekly news update, great! You don't need to do anything else. If you'd rather just receive the monthly newsletter, you can manage your PHAN email subscriptions from the “manage preferences” link at the bottom of this email.

You can support us by liking, sharing, and commenting on our social media posts on Bluesky, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

On December 17, at 10 am PT/1 pm ET, we’ll host a special Zoom meeting to demonstrate two projects we’ve been working on: CARE, and SAFER.

These projects are currently in beta status and we will include a function inside each application to submit bugs and feedback. We're excited to show these projects to the PHAN community and hope you can join us!

Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85899548337?pwd=04e279kO03bQkKYt8wfvPiBAAH4hPG.1

Don't forget to mask up while you're traveling this holiday season! We want everyone to be healthy and COVID-free! Photo courtesy Mask Together America.

We're giving away

ten free subscriptions to

Julia DoubledaY's The gauntlet

Tell your friends and alert the neighbors, because we're giving away ten free subscriptions to The Gauntlet from Julia Doubleday! Anyone who subscribes to PHAN's newsletters this month will be entered into a drawing for a year's subscription to Julia's blog.

Julia is a Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. patient who pours her heart out by recording history, communicating life-altering science, and exposing political betrayal while also being vulnerable about her personal experiences. We think your friends and colleagues will be touched by her blog as we have been.

DONATE TO PHAN TO HELP US HELP THE COVID-AWARE COMMUNITY

This holiday season, we're asking for your support to help us develop software tools like CARE and SAFER, as well as supporting our efforts to share evidence-based science and public health advocacy and our work with delivering high-quality masks and COVID tests to community groups on the ground. Any donation is appreciated. Thank you so much for your support!

AIR SUPPORT PROJECT FUNDRAISER

Our good friends at Air Support Project are holding an end-of-the-year fundraiser with a $2500 matching grant for all donations made before December 31st! Air Support Project is moving their low-cost high-quality modular MERV-13 air purifier VELLO from a concept to a physical prototype, and they need the community's help to bring it to production. As a 503c3, all donations are tax-deductible. If you support bringing low-cost high-quality air purifiersDevices designed to remove contaminants from the air to improve quality. to the general public, we hope you'll support Air Support Project this season.

Another good friend of PHAN, Clean AirAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. Allies, is sponsoring a creative video contest for young people to explain why indoor air quality in schools is important to them. U.S. students age 13 or older, in grades 9-12 during the 2025-2026 school year, are invited to create and submit a 1- to 3-minute video around the theme, “It’s Time to Care about School Indoor Air”. Clean AirAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. Allies is accepting video submissions until January 15, 2026.

Clean AirAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. Allies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that all schoolchildren, school workers, and their broader communities have access to the benefits of clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. as an issue of educational, environmental, and health justice. We would love to see them get hundreds of entries. This contest will not only engage young folks in the cause for clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. and bring more awareness of the issue to their own schools, but it will also create terrific content for the entire clean-air community.

ONGOING WEEKLY

COVID COMMUNITY MEETINGS

Every Saturday evening: PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Pals meetings on Zoom. Every Saturday at 5 pm PT/8 pm ET, the PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. 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.

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.

Daily: 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.

December 13, 2025: COVID-Cautious Grief Space. This space is being offered by a private individual. Jenn has provided trauma-informed peer support in various settings, including 1:1 sessions and facilitated spaces for survivors of sexual violence and COVID bereaved individuals. This is a peer space to grieve in community with other COVID cautious people. There will be an option to name our grief, time to share in a large group and smaller break out rooms for us to connect.

December 17, 2025: Scripps Research LoCITT-T update webinar. Scripps Research is hosting a LoCITT-T update webinar on 12/17 at 2:30 eastern / 11:30 pacific. "In this session, we will share updates on how the Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. Treatment Trial-Tirzepatide (LoCITT-T) is progressing and discuss why continued engagement from all study participants is important for generating meaningful results. We’ll also host an interactive Q&A to answer your questions live.”

December 20, 2025: Trauma, Purity, & Who Gets Left Behind: a convo and Q&A about COVID organizing. A live Zoom conversation and Q&A at 12 noon PT on Sat, Dec 20, with Tara Parti and Dr. Caryn Zaner about the impacts of trauma and perfectionism on organizing.

THE STORY SO FAR…

These are some of the more important news stories in 2025:

May 27, 2025: Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. is now the most common chronic health condition among children. Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. has now surpassed asthma as the most common chronic health condition for kids.

July 11, 2025: A study that modelled the clinical course, health effects, and associated costs of a person with long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. found that that the average total cost of a long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. case can range from $5084-$11 646 (assuming symptoms only last 1 year) with 92.5%-95.2% of these costs being productivity losses. Therefore, the current number of long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. cases could cost society at least $2.01-$6.56 billion, employers at least $1.99-$6.49 billion in productivity losses, and third-party payers $21.0-$68.5 million annually (6%-20% probability of developing long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.). Long coronavirus disease (COVID), which affects an estimated 44.69-48.04 million people in the United States, is an ongoing public health concern that will persist as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2The virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.) continues to spread.

Sept. 23, 2025: Groundbreaking “Healthy Indoor Air” high-level side event at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. This event led to the creation of Air Club, an international organization for anyone interested in healthy indoor air.

Sept. 30, 2025: Children and teenagers are twice as likely to develop Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. after an initial infection, a large new study has found.

November 21, 2025: A new study consolidates the known data on the economic effects of Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. and found the disease is imposing an average annual burden of $1 trillion globally and $9000 per patient in the USA, with some individuals covering substantial out-of-pocket expenses. Annual lost earnings in the USA alone are estimated at approximately $170 billion.

December 8, 2025: US Weekly COVID update from the PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Mitigation Collaborative (PMC). For additional data, visit the PMC Data website, and follow PMC Data author Mike Hoerger on Twitter.

🔹479,000 new daily infections based on wastewater-derived models, up slightly from the previous week

🔹1 in 102 people (1%) actively infectious

🔹Infections in the past week: 2,940,000

🔹Infections in 2025: 225,000,000

🔹Cumulative infections per person: 4.84

November 27, 2025: A six-week long longitudinal study of shared indoor space in a Swiss secondary school shows that prolonged exposure in shared, poorly ventilated spaces, which potentially includes several infectious sources, drives respiratory virus transmission more than close contact.

December 4, 2025: One of the largest COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness. vaccine studies ever done, analyzing data from 28 million people in France, showed widespread reduction in mortality from the vaccine.

• 74% lower risk of death from severe COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness.

• 25% lower risk of all-cause mortality

• No increase in 4-year mortality

• Vaccinated people had lower risk of death from any cause.

December 5, 2025: An analysis of lymphocyte subset data from 40,537 patients shows that SARS-CoV-2The virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. infection results in a condition of long-lasting immune compromise. The John Snow Project published a lengthy article about that study.

December 8, 2025: Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. research gets a big funding boost in Germany, as the German government commits half a billion euros for research on long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. and other post-infection syndromes: "Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis, agrees, saying it’s 'a great step in the right direction'. Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. has become politicized and 'less of a priority for governments around the world,' he adds."

December 9, 2025: Many states are now dealing with a "quad-demic" of COVID, RSV, norovirus, and influenza, including a new strain, H3N2 subclade K. In Massachusetts, hospitalizations linked to the flu nearly doubled in one week. One school district in Iowa cancelled classes for two days because of an extremely high level of sickness among students and staff. Four jurisdictions are currently reporting the highest level of flu activity: Louisiana and New York City, both at the maximum Level 10 followed by Colorado and New York state, each at Level 9.

December 10, 2025: The CDC reported the United States has 1,912 confirmed measles cases so far in 2025, an increase of 84 cases since the previous week.

December 10, 2025: New bird flu outbreaks have been reported at commercial facilities in Indiana and North Dakota, and in backyard flocks in Washington, Wyoming, and West Virginia. The hardest hit state is Indiana, where outbreaks affecting more than 15,000 birds have been reported in three commercial duck meat facilities.

and now for your moment of zen

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