Summer Bonus: Covid is airborne! Clean the air! Wear a mask! Test the wastewater!

Welcome to the first Summer 2026 Bonus Issue for the Covid-Is-Not-Over newsletter!

These bonus issues are basically collections of links that I haven’t been able to use for the regular newsletter. This first bonus issue is all about masking, airborne transmission, air quality and related issues.

I’ll have weeklyish bonus issues before I resume regular newslettering sometime around the end of July or the beginning of August. Those additional bonus issues will probably focus on Long Covid, health effects of Covid, and how the world has changed because of Covid. Not necessarily in that order. There might also be an AI related one, but we’ll see.

No guarantees about number of issues, timing and content. I’ll probably be including Must Read Articles and Musical Interludes in the bonuses, but, then again, I may not.

The whole purpose of these bonus issues is to get something out that I hope you will all find useful but that I don’t have to work too hard on. What with it being summer and all, that seems like the best idea.

With that, I’ll just stop typing.

Top Articles Everyone Should Read on Covid

• What COVID-19 Does to the Body (10th Edition, February 2026) / Pandemic Accountability Index

• What Do We Know About Long COVID? A Compilation of Medical Research (125+ Studies) / Pandemic Accountability Index

• ANSWERED: Is COVID-19 Harmful to Children? A Compilation of Peer-Reviewed Medical Research / Pandemic Accountability Index

• ANSWERED: Does COVID-19 Impact the Immune System? A Compilation of Medical Research (45+ Studies) / Pandemic Accountability Index

• ANSWERED: Does COVID-19 Harm the Brain? / Pandemic Accountability Index

• WHN joins in the chorus: Medical masks are not PPE / World Health Network

• Yes, We Continue Wearing Masks—Here’s Why: Common Questions Answered / World Health Network

• Seven Things to Know About Long COVID by Marisa Swanson / World Health Network

• Long COVID in Context: Prevalence, Search Interest, and Funding / World Health Network

• Spectrum of COVID-19: From Asymptomatic Organ Damage to Long COVID Syndrome by Andrew Ewing, Špela Šalamon, et al. / World Health Network

• Simple things you can do to avoid COVID by Lucky Tran / Aranet

• Immunity Debt: The Conspiracy Theory Elevated to Popular Pseudoscience That Is Making Children Sick / LIL_Science

• You Have To Live Your Life & more Responses to Common COVID Minimizing Phrases

• Covid-19: Will It Mutate To Nothingness? by Rawat Deonandan

• The Science of How COVID Spreads by Abby / One Life Lived Well

• How respiratory viruses transmit: Why some viruses spread easily and others don’t, and what it means for prevention by Gage Moreno

There is currently no paid subscription option for this newsletter and I do not have any plans to switch to that model. However, Substack does have an option where subscribers can pledge to subscribe “just in case” and a few of you have done so. I very much appreciated the vote of confidence in what I’m doing here. If you want to send a little “Thank You” I have a Ko-fi tip jar set up. It. My plan is to spend whatever is donated by supporting artists on Bandcamp.

Buy me a patio beer!

Readings on Masking, Transmission, Cleaning the Air, and Related Topics (Since June 2025)

• N95 Masks Nearly Perfect at Blocking COVID, UMD Study Shows - MPower Maryland

• Monitoring wastewater proves effective in forecasting COVID trends

• Smartwatches could help stop pandemics before they start

• From miasma to COVID-19: Exploring evolving understanding of airborne illnesses | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

• Transmission of respiratory infectious diseases based on real close contact behavior in an emergency room - ScienceDirect

• Alberta wastewater unlocked key information about COVID-19. Could it help with measles too? | CBC News

• The next leap forward: Clean air for Canadians

• Smog episodes accumulate and have long-term health effects: Quebec doctors group | National News | thecanadianpressnews.ca

• Germ-killing UV lights modestly cut overall rates of respiratory infection in nursing homes

• Wastewater surveillance for detecting COVID-19 offers early warning and cost savings

• Predictive algorithm for COVID-19 infection risk in indoor environments | Scientific Reports

• Wastewater surveillance for COVID-19 testing in long-term care settings found effective

• Sustainable wastewater surveillance methodologies in the post-COVID-19 era | EurekAlert!

• Many studies of air-cleaning tech say they curb viral spread, but new review raises questions

• Healthcare-Associated COVID-19 in Ontario, Canada: Relative Mortality and Contribution to Community Epidemic Growth | medRxiv

• Impact of ventilation and ambient temperature on COVID-19 transmission in clinic waiting rooms: A computational fluid dynamics approach | PLOS One

• Using indoor CO2 concentration thresholds to understand and improve the air quality of public buildings: A practical approach - ScienceDirect

• Wastewater Measures of SARS-CoV-2 Accurately Predict Frequency of Symptomatic Infections in the Community | The Journal of Infectious Diseases | Oxford Academic

• Survival and transmission fitness of SARS-CoV-2 over the time-of-flight in an aerosolization chamber | npj Viruses

• Wastewater as an early indicator for short-term forecasting COVID-19 hospitalization in Germany

• Risk mitigation of shared room ventilation and filtration on SARS-CoV-2 transmission: a multicenter test-negative study | Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology | Cambridge Core

• Bushfire smoke and COVID-19: Study reveals lessons from Canadian wildfires

• Masks & COVID: Everything You Wanted to Know (But Were Told Wrong)

• Invisible and ignored: Why indoor air quality deserves our attention | PHCC

• Global commission on healthy indoor air launches at United Nations - Workplace Insight

• Policy Win: Health Canada Releases New IAQ Guidance • Ontario Society of Professional Engineers

• WHN joins in the chorus: Medical masks are not PPE

• Mitigating Airborne Infection Transmission in the Common Area of Inpatient Wards—A Case Study

• International air travel—especially packed flights—fueled flu, COVID-19 spread during pandemic, researchers say | CIDRAP

• Tom Hanks on mask wearing: “I’ve had COVID enough in my life”

• As the American West faces increasing air pollution, protecting the right to mask is vital - The Sick Times

• Opinion: Masks aren’t just COVID chic | Opinion | westerngazette.ca

• Effect of Personal Protective Equipment on the Prevention of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Healthcare Workers

• Protocol: a systematic review+ (SR+) to combine associative and mechanistic evidence on the efficacy of face masks in reducing transmission of respiratory diseases

• COVID-19 era technology upgrade continues helping Monroe County Sheriff’s Office

• Influence of seating position and ventilation on aerosol dispersion in a passenger aircraft | CEAS Aeronautical Journal | Springer Nature Link

• Ventilate Your Home to Reduce COVID Risk Indoors | KQED

• Wastewater testing still a valuable tool for public health

• New Health Canada public dashboard shares data on illicit drug use through wastewater

• The relative contribution of close-proximity contacts, shared classroom exposure and indoor air quality to respiratory virus transmission in schools | Nature Communications

• The Case for Masks Was Made a Century Ago

• Schools must improve air quality to slow spread of respiratory illness, advocates say - The Globe and Mail

• COVID-19: did the masks work? - PubMed

• Estimating the value of face coverings during the COVID-19 epidemic: a dynamic causal modelling study | BMJ Public Health

• Study investigates the extent of flu transmission by airborne inhalation

• Wastewater surveillance detecting trends in both human and agricultural diseases - Newmarket News

• Face masks ‘inadequate’ and should be swapped for respirators, WHO is advised | Global health | The Guardian

• Open Letter to WHO: A Call for the Universal use of Respirators in Healthcare - WHN

• The School Engine Behind Flu and COVID — and Why Clean Air for Kids Is the Missing Public Health Tool

• In-center hemodialysis tied to 50% to 85% higher COVID infection rates than at-home procedure | CIDRAP

• Attribution of super-spreaders to the COVID-19 outbreak

• Airborne dominance in COVID-19 transmission on long-haul flights - ScienceDirect

• COVID-19 infection boosts mask-wearing, study finds | Asia Research News

• Hotel experiment suggests air mixing can help curb flu transmission | CIDRAP

• Wastewater surveillance reveals hidden COVID spread beyond reported cases

• The Secret Weapon in Canada’s Sewers - Macleans.ca

• Quantification of airborne respiratory microflora provides insights into airborne infection risk - ScienceDirect

• The Rapid Progress of Climate Change Requires Effective Concepts for Protecting People Indoors

• The 5p Solution: How clean air is transforming attendance and learning in one Hampshire school

• Determining the reliability of the Vitalight CO2 Monitor via the assessment of the carbon dioxide profile on city transit buses - PMC

• Mask-wearing during COVID-19 may have reduced heart attack risk triggered by air pollution

• Study: SARS-CoV-2 RNA found in 39% of hospital air samples during outbreaks, despite good ventilation | CIDRAP

• Breaking Down Silos: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Mitigate Indoor Airborne Pathogen Transmission - Alex Zhu, William P. Bahnfleth, Richard Bruns, Giorgio Buonanno, David Fisman, Cria O. Gregory, Charles N. Haas, Benjamin Jones, Kazukiyo Kumagai, Georgia K. Lagoudas, Yuguo Li, Alexander Linder, Donald Milton, Lidia Morawska, Scott W. Olesen, Paula Olsiewski, Lew Radonovich, Pawel Wargocki, Gigi K. Gronvall, 2026

• Tess Finch Lees: From the Winter Olympics to Nasa, wearing masks is back – except when it comes to our hospitals | Irish Independent

• Far UVC Technology and Germicidal Ultraviolet Energy: Policy and Research Review for Indoor Air Quality and Disease Transmission Control

• Synthesis challenges in complex evidence: A critical analysis of systematic reviews of face mask efficacy

• The New Paradigm of Airborne Disease

• CV Families’ wins at the UK Covid Inquiry

• The Human Cost of Failing to Name COVID ‘Airborne’ | The Tyee

• From Droplets to “Through the Air”: Why Ventilation and Respirators Matter More Than Ever in Infection Prevention

• Data is one thing, interpretation another

• Data, Facts and Interpretations - by Dr. Nicola Jane Boyd

• Updated long-term-care regulations are set to introduce UV technology

• Effectiveness of using full personal protective equipment in reducing the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in health care workers: A systematic review

• The Science of How COVID Spreads

• When the SPIRIT moves you: protocol changes can introduce bias in non-inferiority trials | The BMJ

• We need masks in healthcare. Now. - The Sick Times

• Localized wastewater surveillance showed correlation but no early warning during Bengaluru’s Omicron wave | PLOS Global Public Health

• Silver bullet? The effect of mask mandates on COVID-19 cases - ScienceDirect

• The old tech that could help stop the next airborne pandemic

• Virus in the vents: Study traces COVID spread in high-rise apartment | CIDRAP

• Genetic shifts in wastewater may reveal rises and falls in COVID-19 transmission

• A week’s warning in the sewers: Wastewater may predict flu surges | CIDRAP

• If You Care About Queer People, Wear a Mask

• “I don’t need to wear a mask because...”

• Biosensors: the critical missing link we’ve been waiting for?

• The Air We Share: How Cleaner Indoor Air Helps Prevent Infectious Disease | Institute of Health Emergencies and Pandemics

• Viral Protection Strategies During Pandemic Periods: A Comprehensive Evidence-Based Review of Prevention Protocols and Outcomes

• Postpandemic masking practices among health care personnel: beliefs, barriers, and opportunities for improving adherence in clinical settings | Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology

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Cher & Linda Ronstadt. Drift Away / Rip It Up.