Newsletter: August 2025

Greetings, public health PHANs! Welcome to the August 2025 newsletter! A lot is happening but we've got the rundown for you.

If you know of events or organization that may be of interest to our subscribers, please email us at media@phan.community!

We at PHAN are very disheartened at the current situation in U.S. public health policyLaws and regulations aimed at protecting public health. and infrastructure. We believe the current approach to how public health is being handled in the U.S. and globally is heading in the wrong direction for humanity, in a manner that will damage us for generations. We’re seeing a vast increase in distrust and disinformation spread about airborne pathogens, pharmaceutical interventions like vaccines, and non-pharmaceutical interventions like masks and air purification that are moving us backward in time. The U.S. has historically been a leader in public health. The loss of our credibility, public health funding, and scientific data will resonate into future generations at an extreme human and environmental cost.

be Airaware with our new website widget

We're excited to present our new “AirAware” widget on our website that shows local air quality and wastewater statistics for COVID, RSV, and influenza in the US. The widget appears in the lower-right corner of every page of the website and will expand when you click on it, to show your local air quality index (AQI)A system for reporting the quality of outdoor air and its health impact. information and the local wastewater statistics, with links to the original information sources. This information is based on your individual IP address, which is sometimes not as specific to your area as you might think, but for most situations, the IP address will match your location.

We've also made this widget open-source on GitHub, linked in the widget. The GitHub repository has a readme file with instructions on how to install it on your own website. We believe scientific information should be made open and freely available, and we're excited to add to the open-source healthy-air-data community.

The beta version of our clear Ai/llm chatbot is now available!

We're also excited to present the beta version of our new “CLEAR” COVID and Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. AI/LLM “chatbot”! This chatbot is just for COVID and Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. information and is tightly constrained to give you only verified scientific information. This chatbot is linked to several thousand verified research papers. It will not search the entire web but instead will constrain its search to the papers we've uploaded to its database. You can ask it any kind of question about COVID or Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., with any degree of knowledge from simple to highly technical. CLEAR will search the research papers and articles, then it will return an answer in the level of language the question was in. It will also provide citations to the relevant papers that you'll be able to read alongside its answer. You can then click on suggested follow-up questions, or ask a new one, or ask it to restate the answer in simpler terms or in more technical language.

Some sample questions you can ask the chatbot:

We're pretty excited about the potential of this tool. We think this could be a real asset towards public health communications in the U.S. and ultimately globally. CLEAR is currently just for English-language questions and responses, but we're hoping to make it multi-lingual in the future.

We would love your feedback on this new tool! Email us at info@publichealthactionnetwork.org, or tag us on any of our social media accounts:

We're sharing this one again because it's so good! Read all about ten wildly wrong pieces of disinformation being spread about COVID, and what the facts are for each of these points.

You may have heard that COVID is like the cold or flu – it isn't.

You may have heard repeated infections are not harmful – they are.

Or you may have heard that vaccine injury is common – it isn't.

See if you've heard any of these from friends or family and use this blog post to share the facts with them.

PHAN recommends that everyone mask when they’re in public indoor spaces, outdoor spaces that are very crowded, or private spaces where other folks are present who have not been practicing mitigations. But we know it's not always not possible to mask in all those situations, so if you're not able to mask all the time: we recommend focusing on three places – grocery stores, healthcare settings, and mass transit – that will make the most difference for you and for others, especially those who are immuno-compromised.

air support project will host a twitter space event on Thurs, Sept 4th

Air Support Project, a PHAN ally organization, will host a Twitter Space event on the software side of IAQ/COVID monitoring on Thursday, September 4th at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET. Click their Twitter Space link to set a reminder and to listen the event.

Check out their press release about their new “Vello” air purifier project, and sign up for their mailing list for launch updates. You can also follow them on all the social media platforms: Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

clean-air advocate plum stone seeking help to get to the UN healthy indoor air event

Australian clean-air advocate Plum Stone, who's also the CEO of the nonprofit clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. organization Safer Air Project, is hoping to go to the United Nations side-event “Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action”, and she's asking for financial support to get there. She plans to speak on behalf of those affected by poor indoor air quality whose voices are least able to be heard due to chronic illness, disability, or compromised immunity. We think it's pretty important to make sure those voices and perspectives are heard, so we hope you'll donate and share the request. Learn more and donate to her trip to New York City on their website.

PHAN will also be at the Healthy Indoor Air event! Check our social media for news from the event!

We're making a podcast! As public health institutions are gutted and mainstream platforms increasingly amplify and distribute disinformation, we believe there's a critical need for honest, science-based voices. Our podcast aims to fill that vacuum. We’ll be talking with people fighting COVID and vaccine disinformation, Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. patients, mutual aid organizers distributing masks and filters, experts in air quality and masking, researchers developing treatments, and public health professionals tracking airborne threats.

We’re excited to step into this new space because someone has to!

Stay tuned, and if you have ideas for episodes, reach out to us at media@phan.community.

August 5th, 2025: White House orders NASA to deliberately destroy two satellites that provide detailed information about carbon dioxide and crop health. The objects are the only two federally-used satellites that provide information built to specifically monitor planet-warming greenhouse gases.

August 19th, 2025: For the first time in 30 years, the American Association of Pediatrics has issued vaccine guidance that differs from the federal government's. The AAP is "strongly recommending" COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness. shots for children ages 6 mos to 2 years, while the CDC is not recommending those shots.

August 19th, 2025: Scientists are re-thinking the effects of COVID on the immune system. SARS-CoV-2The virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic., the virus that causes COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness., has been linked to “an unusually high level of ‘indiscriminate’ killing of T cells,” which seems to contribute to long-lasting immune system disruption. This is more evidence for persuading folks that masking is still worth it.

August 27th, 2025: Indonesia launched a measles vaccination program for children after a recent outbreak in East Java caused seventeen deaths.

August 27th, 2025: CDC erupts in chaos after ousted chief Susan Monarez refuses to resign. An unsigned statement said that she is no longer the director, but a statement from Monarez's lawyers says she has not been notified by the White House that she is fired and she will not resign. At least three other CDC directors have resigned in protest over the action, including Dr Demetre Daskalakis, who stepped down as the director of the National Center for ImmunizationThe process by which an individual becomes protected against a disease through vaccination or natural immunity. and Respiratory Diseases; Dr Deb Houry, the chief medical officer; and Daniel Jernigan, who ran the Center for Emerging Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

UPcoming events of interest

We post events to our website's Events page as we hear about them – check it out!

Every Saturday evening (U.S. time): The PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Pals group hosts a Zoom call at 5pm PT/8pm ET every Saturday for anyone who is COVID-aware, has Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., or just wants to be an ally. They host over a dozen breakout rooms for various interests, age groups, and themes. Check their Google Doc on Saturday morning/afternoon for that evening's Zoom link.

COVID-safe events in the Bay Area: Every week, Charles Lewis III publishes a list of COVID-safe live events in the San Francisco Bay Area. And COVID Safer SF shares posts about COVID-safe events in the Bay Area on their Bluesky, Instagram, and Twitter accounts.

August 30th & 31st, 2025 – A Weekend of COVID-Cautious Events, Portland & Beaverton, OR: Covid Info PDX presents a weekend of COVID-cautious events in the Portland area, including a nature walk, an afternoon of bowling & arcade & laser-tag, an evening table-top gaming event, a dance party, an activity night at a campground, a family-outing event in a forest, and a goat farm visit. Many of the events are free or very low-cost, but all events require tickets. Get more information and tickets for each event at their website.

September 23rd, 2025 – Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action, a side-event for the United Nations General Assembly. The public is invited to join global leaders, policymakers, scientists and health experts for “Healthy Indoor Air: A Global Call to Action” – the inaugural High-Level Side Event on indoor air quality, to take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Find more information at the event website.

October 20th & 21st 2025 – 2025 Canadian Symposium on Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., St John's, Newfoundland, Canada: Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. Web and Memorial University of Newfoundland will host the 2025 Canadian Symposium on Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.. ​The symposium will bring together people with lived experience of Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., clinicians, trainees, allied health, researchers and others to discuss the latest innovations and scientific developments in Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.. Registration options include in-person and virtual attendance, plus a discounted rate of $5 for those with lived Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. experience. Ticket sales end on October 3rd at 7:29am Newfoundland time. Get more information and purchase tickets at their website.

October 21st, 2025 – Free in-person and online Atlantic Meetup as part of the 2025 Canadian Symposium: As part of the 2025 Canadian Symposium on Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. in St John's, NL, the organizers are hosting a free Atlantic Meetup session on Tuesday, October 21st, at 7 am ET/8 am Atlantic time, which will be available in-person and online. At the meetup, folks can ask questions of experts and make connections with other folks in the Canadian Atlantic provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador). Separate registration for this meetup is required – register for it here.

November 19th & 20th, 2025 – 3rd Annual Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. Conference, Boston, MA: The 3rd Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. International Conference will be held in Boston, United States on 19 – 20 November 2025 as a hybrid conference. Registration deadline for the standard fees is Sept. 19th, at various levels depending on whether attendance is in-person or virtual, and whether the attendee is a “regular person” or part of the public health and healthcare industries. The conference is offering a highly discounted rate for virtual registration for patients, at approximately $25. Check their website for more details and registration.

Some fun from the vertlartnic!

Follow Vertlartnic on social media: Bluesky and Twitter

We're seeking volunteers!

If you'd like to help make a world that supports folks being COVID-conscious, where anyone can find the Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. healthcare they need, and where everyone has access to clean indoor air, we want you! We're ramping up quickly and would love to have you on our team. We're looking for volunteers in the following areas:

GENERAL: Project Manager, and Volunteer Coordinator

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

COMMUNICATIONS: social media, graphic designers, writers, storytellers, fundraisers, photographers, videographers, news curators

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!

We NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

If you're able to donate to make it possible for us to create tools that will benefit folks around the world and then let people know about those tools, we will gladly accept your donation.

Another way to help support us is to follow us on social media and share our posts, on Bluesky, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. When you follow us, like our posts, replay to our posts, and share our posts, it all adds up to help increase our visibility.