Newsletter: June 2025

Greetings, public health PHANs! Happy Pride Month! A lot is happening but we’ve got the rundown for you. News and events for June 2025:

If you know of events that should go in our next newsletter, please email us at media@phan.community!

 

The recent changes to NIH and CDC enacted by the current US federal administration, where several thousand researchers have had their CDC grants pulled, where guidance on who is now advised to get a vaccine has been revised in a way that dangerously leaves out many people, and recent changes to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on ImmunizationThe process by which an individual becomes protected against a disease through vaccination or natural immunity. Practices, where every single member was dismissed and replaced with individuals espousing anti-vaccine ideologies have left us bewildered and deeply concerned.

 

These moves are not just counter to science, they are extremely dangerous. We urge the federal government to reverse course and return to sound, evidence-based public health policyLaws and regulations aimed at protecting public health.. And we urge the public to speak out, learn what’s happening, and contact your representatives to demand better. PHAN will be tracking these developments closely and continuing to shine a light where others won’t.

 

We want to wish everyone a happy Pride month! Pride month was started by gay and lesbian activists to counteract the prevailing prejudices against them. As a public health advocacy organization, we’re disheartened to report that trans, gay, and lesbian folks on average have a higher incidence of Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. as well as many other chronic healthcare conditions. LGBTQ+ folks on average tend to have less access to healthcare resources and are in job that require direct contact with the public, while also being restricted in being able to mask at their work. It’s up to all of us to protect each other, especially when some folks are in more vulnerable positions and might not be able to take all the precautions they’d like to.

PHAN BOARD MEMBER PHILLIP ALVELdA’s recent appearance on A WEBINAR entitled “THE Promise of ai In long covidPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.”

PHAN board member Phillip Alveldra recently took part in a fascinating and thought-provoking webinar about the current and potential uses of AI with researching, diagnosing, and treating Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.. Phillip discussed how he used AI to help find treatment for his daughter who’s been affected with Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., and how researchers are using it to separate out various Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. subtypes and find substances that can bind to COVID to help neutralize it. The webinar was hosted by RTHM, a Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. healthcare clinic and telehealth service.

 

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.

PHAN worked to DISTRIBUTE OVER 

15,000 covid protections

We are delighted to announce that we were recently able to help secure and distribute approximately 15,000 life-saving COVID protections through local on-the-ground groups, including over 10,000 high quality masks and over 5,000 NAAT and Rapid COVID tests. These life-saving supplies are helping tens of thousands of individuals and families stay safer as institutional support continues to decline. Keep on masking, keep on testing, and keep supporting your local mutual aid efforts!

 

We’re delighted to share a new blog post from a volunteer guest blogger, about their experience in their San Francisco high school when pandemicA global outbreak of a disease. protocols were enacted in 2020. Making schools more COVID-safe is one of our goals, and our guest blogger points out several protections that made their high school experience about as productive and well-run as it could have been, under the circumstances.

BLOG POST: yes, you can travel safely in a not-so-covid-safe world

Lots of folks are traveling for the summer, but how to do it safely so you can avoid COVID and other airborne illnesses? We’ve got you covered. Our communications manager Theresa O’Connor spoke with several people who’ve recently traveled safely with some basic precautions and wrote up a basic set of steps that you can take to keep you and your family safe so you can enjoy your travels.

 

May 27th, 2025: JAMA: Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. is now the most common chronic healthcare condition among children in the U.S. Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. has now surpassed asthma to become the most common chronic illness among children in the U.S. It didn’t have to be this way! We need to work to prevent the incidence of Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. in children by preventing COVID infections. The article details the symptoms seen in in various age groups. Infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children are more likely to have visible symptoms like poor appetite, sleepiness, and respiratory symptoms. School-aged children are more likely to have neurological symptoms, e.g., trouble focusing, trouble sleeping, or feeling light-headed, as well as back or neck pain, headache, stomach pain, or vomiting, and behavioral changes. Adolescents may have change or loss in smell or taste, pain, fatigue-related symptoms, trouble with memory, and light-headedness. Post-exertional malaise (PEM) has been reported in children and adults with long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19..

 

June 17th, 2025:  San Francisco Chronicle: new “razor blade throat” variant of COVID is hitting California and several other states. The new “Nimbus” variant is starting to see increased numbers of reported cases in several states. It’s frequently described as causing severe throat pain, akin to swallowing razor blades or broken glass. Experts are saying it appears to be somewhat more infectious than previous strains, which is a common pattern with new strains, but it does not appear to cause more severe illness.

 

June 25th, 2025: CNN: Presentation for CDC advisers appears to cite nonexistent study to support claims about risk of vaccine preservative. The presentation at the meeting of vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claimed that a study in animals suggested that use of the vaccine preservative thimerosal can have “long-term consequences in the brain,” but no such study exists.

UPcoming events of interest

August 10th-13th, 2025: Keystone Symposia presents an in-person seminar and an online webinar on Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. and Other Post-Acute Infection Syndromes. The event will take place at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa, Santa Fe, NM, U.S. Scientific Organizers include Akiko Iwasaki, Avindra Nath, Hannah Davis and Daniel M. Altma. PHAN board member Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly will be one of the featured speakers on a session titled “EpidemiologyThe study of disease patterns, causes, and effects in populations., Clinical Diagnosis and Management of Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19.”.

 

Handwashing is fine but 

masking is finer!

Community spotlight: 

air support project!

Air Support Project is a 501(c)(3) making clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. non-negotiable in a world still battling COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness.. Their upcoming Kickstarter will feature “Vello”, a flat-pack air purifier with proven MERV-13 filtrationThe process of removing particles from the air or liquids using filters. that captures COVID-sized aerosols and other pollutants. Priced for every household, each Vello that’s sold will fund additional units for classrooms, shelters, and disaster-relief sites where clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. saves lives. Sign up for ASP’s mailing list today for launch updates and early-bird pricing, then share to help everyone breathe easier.

 

We’re continuing to make progress on two projects for the COVID-conscious community: 

 

SAFER is intended to be the most comprehensive directory of COVID-conscious businesses and organizations on earth. It will include COVID/Long-COVID/clean-air advocacy and support organizations, COVID-conscious businesses and healthcare providers, mask blocs, clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. clubs, Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. providers, C02 monitoring, and other related businesses and groups around the world. This data will all be free with no account or login required, and we’ll be happy to share our collected resources data back with anyone. We hope to be able to release this directory to the public this summer.

 

Our webpage about SAFER now includes a full list of features, a list of the categories used in the directory, and a list of the sources we’re drawing from, We’ve included information from over fifteen different maps and resources lists, with over 5000 entries that are continuing to be vetted. Anyone will be able to access the directory by browsing categories, searching by name or area, or finding entries geographically on a map. Entries will have location and contact information, business hours, services offered, and what masking precautions they use, like “mask on demand”, “mask-only days/hours”, or “always masking”. Ultimately we’ll let people create accounts where they can rate the business and organizations, post comments, and submit new entries or updates to existing ones. We hope to release this project before the end of the summer of this year.

 

 

CLEAR is an innovative tool that we are really excited about. It’s a “smart AI chat-bot” that’s linked to thousands of papers (and adding more all the time) that deal with COVID, Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., masking, and related topics. 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, and it will search the papers and return an answer in the level of language the question was in, with citations to the relevant papers that you’ll be able to read alongside its answer. It will not search the entire web but instead will constrain its search to the papers we’ve uploaded to its database. 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. 

 

In addition, you can use CLEAR to create e-mails for your family or healthcare providers that explain why you’re taking precautions and why you hope they’ll do so as well, with citations and data.

 

CLEAR is currently just for English-language questions and responses but we’re hoping to make it multi-lingual. We think this could be a real asset towards public health communications in the U.S. and ultimately globally. We hope to release this project before the end of the summer of this year.

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: 

 

Project Management

Volunteer Coordinaters

 

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.