Newsletter: November 2025

Greetings, public health PHANs! Welcome to the November 2025 newsletter, and we hope you're having a nice holiday season. A lot is happening but we've got the rundown for you.

If you know of events or organizations that may be of interest to our subscribers, please email us at media@phan.community. Follow us on social media for the latest updates: Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X.

Happy THANKSGIVING/INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY from everyone at PHAN

November has been designated as Lung Cancer Awareness Month, which we're acknowledging because we know that SARS-CoV-2The virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. infection can increase the risk of cancer-related mortality and lung metastasis in cancer survivors, particularly in those with breast cancer 12. Additionally, persistent inflammatory responses and immune dysregulation in Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. could potentially influence lung cancer risk by creating a conducive micro-environment for cancer initiation and progression.

December is AIDS Awareness Month, and although Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. is not “airborne AIDS”, they share some similarities, and each condition can affect the other condition. We know that chronic inflammation, immune exhaustion, and accelerated biological aging are shared hallmarks of HIVI/AIDS and Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19./PASC. People living with HIV (PLHIV) may experience a higher burden of COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness. due to their compromised immune systems. Immune deficiency in PLHIV is a risk factor for severe COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness. outcomes. Some conditions like Kaposi's sarcoma or having a CD4 count of <200 are considered “AIDS-defining”, but some of those conditions are now being seen with Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. as well. And the coexistence of COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness. and HIV/AIDS has significant implications for health outcomes and highlights the importance of chronic antiretroviral therapy.

We’re excited to host a Zoom meeting on December 17 (tentatively) to present the beta version of our new “CARE” COVID and Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. conversational tool, which you are invited to try out. The Zoom meeting link will be included in an upcoming weekly newsletter and on our social media.

This tool is designed to help you learn about COVID, Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., and mitigations against them, and get research citations you can share. The tool is tightly constrained to several thousand verified research papers and makes it easy to drill down into the research data. You can ask any kind of question about COVID, Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., masking, and clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. with any degree of knowledge from layperson-simple to highly technical. CARE will search the set of research papers and articles connected to it, and return answers at the level of language the question was in, with citations for the relevant papers. You can then ask it to restate the answer in simpler terms or in more technical language, or ask suggested follow-up questions, or ask a new question. You can also use it to draft emails to friends and family, or your employer, or your healthcare providers.

As an additional option, CARE can search for anecdotal data on Reddit, Bluesky, and Twitter. Anecdotal information will be clearly marked as such and CARE will also provide links to the original posts.

Some sample questions you can ask CARE:

We're very 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. CARE is currently just for English-language questions and responses, but our goal is to make it multi-lingual in the future.

PHAN & air support project co-hosting A twitter/X space every 1st & 3rd thursday

We are delighted to regularly co-host a Twitter Space the first and third Thursdays of every month at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET, with Melissa Smallwood and Sarah Masih from Air Support Project. Our topics and guests are focused on COVID, Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., other airborne pathogens, clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles., and ways to protect ourselves from airborne pathogens.

Our next Space will take place on Thursday, December 4; the topic will be respirators and fashion masking. Learn what makes a high-quality respirator, where to get them, and how to make them match your outfit or mood. Stay tuned to our social media and weekly newsletters for information on upcoming topics and guests. All Spaces are recorded and can be found on our Twitter feed, or from Air Support Project's Twitter Spaces page.

Stories from our blog: TRAVELING SAFELY

If you’re traveling for the holidays, you may be wondering about ways you can protect yourself and your family from COVID and other airborne pathogens, as well as thinking about how to talk to your family and friends about why and how they should be protecting themselves. Our blog post about how to travel safely in a non-COVID-safe world has some information to help protect yourself and your family, with links to other resources.

Find your local air quality and wastewater data with our Airaware website widget

Have you seen our new “AirAware” widget on our website? It shows your local air quality and wastewater statistics for COVID, RSV, and influenza in the U.S. 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. (The widget determines your location based on your device’s IP address; factors such as VPN use may affect accuracy.)

We've also made this widget open-source on GitHub, so you can see how it works or install it on your own website. The GitHub repository comes with instructions for installing it . 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.

Clean AirAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. Allies is sponsoring a creative video contest for young people to explain why clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. in schools is important to them. 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. They launched their youth video contest on November 7, 2025, and they’re accepting video submissions until January 15, 2026. 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”.

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.

We're making a podcast and we can't wait to share it with you. 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 help 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. Some of our guests will include Melissa Smallwood and Sarah Masih at Air Support Project; Jonathan Howard, author of “We Want Them Infected” and “Everyone Else is Lying to You”; and Julie Lam, founder of Mask Together America.

We’re excited to step into this new space and reach even more COVID-aware and clean-air-aware allies. Stay tuned for , and if you have ideas for episode themes or guests, reach out to us at media@phan.community.

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 that is inclusive and welcoming to all COVID-conscious folks. They offer several breakout rooms based on age groups, life situations, special interests, or just for general hanging out. 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 2-3, 2025: World FiltrationThe process of removing particles from the air or liquids using filters. Institute 2025 Annual Virtual Conference. You’re invited to join the World FiltrationThe process of removing particles from the air or liquids using filters. Institute at their 2025 Annual Conference (WFI 2025), December 2–3, 2025, 8am to 12 noon ET each day. The theme of this year’s conference is “FiltrationThe process of removing particles from the air or liquids using filters. for a Healthy, Resilient, and Sustainable World.” Distinguished international experts will explore the latest advances in filtrationThe process of removing particles from the air or liquids using filters. and separation technologies for clean airAir free of pollutants, including viruses, bacteria, and harmful particles. and clean water, and their critical roles in protecting human health, safeguarding critical equipment, and improving the environment , all contributing to building a healthier, more resilient and sustainable world.

December 9, 2025: State Guide to Clean Indoor Air. In September, the PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Center at the Brown University School of Public Health published a 42-page report on improving air quality at the state and local level. Dr. Georgia Lagoudas, Senior Fellow at the PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, will present the team's findings from the report. The webinar takes place at 11am PT/2pm ET.

November 24, 2025: The PandemicA global outbreak of a disease. Mitigation Collaborative (PMC) operated by Mike Hoerger reports that all CDC wastewater data is now back online, but that state-level estimates are likely underestimated, as they are based on the most recent data, which are over a week old.

For additional data on COVID, other pathogens, and pathogenA microorganism that can cause disease. exposure in other countries, visit the PMC Data website, and follow PMC Data author Mike Hoerger on Twitter.

November 7, 2025: Women are three times more likely to get severe Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., apparently due to hormonal disregulation.

November 10, 2025: Canada lost its measles elimination status after a record number of outbreaks in the past year. They lost the status that had been granted them by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), part of the WHO. In the past year there have been more than 5,000 measles cases in the country.

November 10, 2025: Scientists reveal another piece in the long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. puzzle. “In patients with long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19., a new study has revealed a structural association between circulating microclots and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs).”

November 11, 2025: From CIDRAP: More avian flu detected at duck and chicken farms in Indiana

November 13, 2025: The city of Tokyo has issued an influenza warning for the city, the first one they've announced for November since 2009.

November 17, 2025: First ever human case of H5N5 avian flu confirmed in Washington state. "’The affected person has a mixed backyard flock of domestic poultry at home that had exposure to wild birds. The domestic poultry or wild birds are the most likely source of virus exposure; however, a public health investigation is ongoing,’ the health department said in a press release.” On November 24, 2025, it was reported that this patient had died from the H5N5 infection.

November 17, 2025: Long-time disability activist Alice Wong passed away at the age of 51. Alice was well known through her activism on social media and in her home city of San Francisco. Her death is being mourned by disability advocates around the world.

November 18, 2025: From Time Magazine: We Aren't Ready for the Next PandemicA global outbreak of a disease.. This Game Proves It. "The students were playing Operation Outbreak, a game that simulates the spread of an infectious disease. During the game, participants use an app on their phones, which alerts them when their avatars are infected and lists their symptoms. The pathogenA microorganism that can cause disease. “spreads” via Bluetooth, from phone to phone. Creators of the game say it can model how people really behave when disease outbreaks strike. The game has become so good at this that U.S. government agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have run its simulations."

November 19, 2025: The CDC has revised their website’s page about autism and vaccines with anti-research-based language to say that “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” This is not how good science is conducted: claims are made based on evidence to support them, not on lack of evidence to rule them out.

November 20, 2025: The UK COVID-19A disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, leading to respiratory illness. Inquiry, an independent public team charged with investigating the UK response to COVID, today released an 800-page report that found the actions of the UK's four governments "repeatedly amounted to a case of ‘too little, too late’". The report suggests that if the nationwide lockdownA public health measure restricting movement to prevent disease spread. that began on March 23, 2020 had been instituted just one week earlier, it would have prevented up to 23,000 deaths from COVID.

November 24, 2025: An analysis recently published in NPJ Primary Care Respiratory Medicine (a Nature Partner Journal) suggests that Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. is costing the global economy around $1 trillion per year.

November 25, 2025: A third unvaccinated baby in Kentucky has died of pertussis (whooping cough), an airborne disease.

November 25, 2025: The CDC has apparently made their vaccines.gov website unusable, with valid zip codes returning errors. Boston Children's Hospital has put up a vaccine finder site that may be a useful alternative.

November 25, 2025: The Sick Times reports back from the third annual Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. International Conference. "Biomarker and mechanism research was a key focus of the meeting, with two sessions full of study presentations and a panel discussion devoted to the topic."

November 26, 2025: Utah and Arizona see more measles cases, raising the total number of measles cases in the U.S. this year to almost 1800.

gotta laugh!

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, 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.; website/Wordpress developers

CARE: fullstack developers, AI (Deepseek, LLM trainers, etc), researchers, NLP experts, psychiatrists

AIRWISE: game developers who understand physics engines (Unity preferred)

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 volunteers with us–we really appreciate it!

We NEED YOUR SUPPORT!

Your donations make it possible for us to create tools that will benefit folks around the world, then let people know about those tools.

You can also help support us by following us on social media on Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter/X. When you follow us, like, share, and reply to our posts, and share our posts, it all adds up to help increase our visibility.