President and CEO, SETI Institute; IAA SETI Committee member
In June 2026, the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) ratified a major update to its post-detection protocols governing the evaluation, verification, and public communication of potential extraterrestrial intelligence discoveries. Separately, the uNHIdden Foundation — a nonprofit focused on mental health related to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) — released what it describes as the first public-health preparedness framework addressing the societal impact of a paradigm-shifting disclosure event. Both developments were reported by The Debrief on June 11, 2026. The IAA's revised declaration, led by Professor Michael Garrett of the IAA SETI Committee, updates protocols last adopted in 2010, expanding their scope to address deepfakes, AI-generated misinformation, social media, and the broadened technical landscape of modern SETI research. The uNHIdden Foundation's framework, launched June 8 by founder John Priestland and clinical spokesperson Dr. Martin Abbas, was developed by healthcare practitioners and public-health specialists to identify vulnerable populations and propose community-level resilience measures. While neither document constitutes a government action, both are intended to be shared with international bodies including the United Nations, and the IAA protocols are scheduled for formal presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Türkiye later in 2026.