Newsletter: July 2025

Greetings, public health PHANs! Welcome to the July 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!

Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. Families sponsors the Pediatric Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. Awareness week every July, and this month they've shared a ton of information about the impact of Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. on kids and families. Up to one out of five kids who get COVID in the U.S. then go on to develop Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. symptoms. It is truly heart-breaking how many kids are being affected and the strain it puts on families. Learn more about pediatric Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. at the Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. Families website, and follow them on Bluesky.

This month we recognize Disability Pride Month, because COVID can lead to Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. which can create a temporary or permanent disability. We hope everyone can reach out to a friend or neighbor with a disability and give them friendship or support. Disability Pride Month got its start in Boston in 1990 with a Disability Pride Day March, and it has since grown and evolved to become an entire month of raising awareness every July in the U.S. and U.K. Learn more about Disability Pride Month at The Arc website.

Disinformation is rampant but we're here to help! 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 founder and board chairman Ian Goodfellow has been struggling to deal with his Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. for the past two years, and it hasn't been easy on his family either. Ian's wife Dani recently sat down with us for an interview to share her story of trying to help Ian with his illness while taking care of their kids and maintaining the family. Read more about Ian and Dani's story on our website.

air support project gets ready to launch their “VELLO” AIR purifier kickstarter

Air Support Project, a PHAN ally organization, is about to launch their Kickstarter fundraising campaign for their new “Vello” air purifier, and it sounds amazing: a high quality, low-cost air purifier that'll be easy to put together and will ship as a flat pack for ease of mass deployment to places like schools. It will be equipped with proven MERV-13 filtrationThe process of removing particles from the air or liquids using filters. that captures COVID-sized aerosols and other pollutants. Also, 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. Check out their press release from this week, sign up for their mailing list for launch updates, and follow them on social media: Bluesky, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Mastodon.

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.

canadian bill establishing respiratory protection standards in healthcare settings needs support

If you're a Canadian resident, your support for a precedent-setting bill is needed! A strong bill is being proposed in the Canadian legislature that would establish science-based masking standards for healthcare settings and could set a good precedent for standards in other countries. Unfortunately, a petition has been circulated in opposition to this standard. The petition misrepresents the content of the standard, does not engage with its scientific foundations, and reflects a long-standing resistance to acknowledging airborne transmissionThe spread of pathogens through aerosols or droplets suspended in the air. as a primary mode of infection. If successful, it would undermine a rare example of forward-looking, evidence-based policy in healthcare and occupational health.

You can express your support for the bill at the Canadian government's website

(registration required), and you can find templates for letters to doctors and other organizations in your network to ask them to support the bill

at the World Health Network (WHN) website. We encourage every Canadian resident to express their support for the bill and reach out to doctors and other interested parties to ask them to support the bill.

July 1st, 2025: Podcast with Dr. Peter Hotez on the role disinformation is playing with people's understanding of vaccines.

July 2nd, 2025: Organ damage may affect 50% of all people who've had a COVID infection.

July 2nd, 2025: Video clip of PHAN board member Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, talking about the research being done on Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. to “decode” what it does.

July 18th, 2025: The US has rejected the WHO's latest pandemicA global outbreak of a disease. response measures.

July 21st, 2025: CDC says COVID-related emergency room visits climbing especially among young children. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1965670974226032

July 22nd, 2025: National wastewater trends are showing an increase in COVID in Florida, Texas, South Carolina, California, Hawaii, and Idaho.

July 23rd, 2025: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, has accepted an HHS recommendation to remove thimerosal from U.S. flu vaccines even though no health risks from it have ever been documented.

July 23rd, 2025: Summer COVID cases are rising across the U.S.

July 24th, 2025: COVID can cause Alzheimers-like plaques in the eyes and brain.

July 24th, 2025: Study suggests Long COVIDPersistent symptoms following recovery from acute COVID-19. is more prevalent than previously thought.

July 24th, 2025: Air pollution raises risk of dementia, say Cambridge scientist.

July 25th, 2025: New report shows Cap-and-Invest dollars are improving air quality in California’s most polluted communities

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2025/07/25/new-report-shows-cap-and-invest-dollars-are-improving-air-quality-in-californias-most-polluted-communities/

UPcoming events of interest

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.

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.”.

Multiple live COVID-safe Bay Area events: Every week, Charles Lewis publishes a list of COVID-safe live events in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can also follow his posts on Bluesky and Twitter.

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.