Collected public health stories for KFF Health News
US PUBLIC HEALTH
The race to uncover the bird flu in the Texas panhandle
Texas Tribune / KFF Health News, 2024
Four ways vaccine skeptics mislead you on measles and more
CBS News / KFF Health News, 2024
WHO overturned dogma on how airborne disease spreads. Will the CDC act on it?
NBC News / KFF Health News, 2024
Health workers fear it’s profit before protection as CDC revisits airborne transmission
NBC News / KFF Health News, 2024
How the anti-vaccine movement pits parental rights against public health
NBC News / KFF Health News, 2024
How fringe anti-science views became mainstream politics
CBS News / KFF Health News, 2024
Workers pay the price as Congress debates the need for heat protection
CBS News / KFF Health News, 2023
Anti-vaccination Movement Strikes Bible Belt States
Newsweek, 2014
Mississippi and West Virginia have stricter vaccine laws and fewer measles outbreaks than the rest of the US, but that’s changing
Why hundreds of scientists are weighing in on a high-stakes abortion case
Nature, 2021
EBOLA
Behind the front lines of the Ebola wars
Nature, 2019
How the World Health Organization is battling bullets, politics and a deadly virus in the Congo.
Science under fire: Ebola researchers test drugs and vaccines in a crisis
Nature, 2019
Q&A with WHO director: ‘The world has never seen anything like this’
Nature, 2019
eBook: Ebola’s unpaid heroes
Frontline health workers were sidelined in $3.3bn fight against Ebola
Newsweek, 2015
How cultures evolved in the fight against Ebola
National Geographic, 2015
In Sierra Leone’s capital, Ebola found fertile ground
National Geographic, 2015
How poverty, slavery and conflict fueled the Ebola outbreak
Newsweek, 2014
Clinical trials with the blood from Ebola survivors
The Economist, 2014
Sierra Leone’s bravest young doctors
Nova/PBS, 2015
GLOBAL HEALTH
Brazil once pioneered generic drugs, and then came a patent war
Bloomberg, 2023
High prices for brand-name pills are hampering HIV treatment in a country that prided itself on affordable medicines.
How the world’s deadliest crises go unseen
Undark, 2024
Researchers estimate an astronomical death rate in the Central African Republic. It’s invisible.
Profile: Can Nigeria’s first public health director prevent a pandemic?
Nature, 2018
Chikwe Ihekweazu protects the nation – and the world – from devastating outbreaks
Malaria’s ticking time bomb
Nature, 2018
Scientists are racing to stamp out the disease in southeast Asia before unstoppable strains spread
Researchers are quietly tracking populations through mobile phone records
Nature, 2019
Is the invasion of privacy really saving lives?
Profile: Hans Rosling will change your mind about the world
Nature, 2016
Rosling influenced leaders from Fidel Castro to Melinda Gates. Now, he’s on a mission to save you from your preconceived ideas.
U.S. Sanctions Isolate Scientists and Deprive Sudan of Medical Care
Foreign Policy, 2016
Sudan’s ruling elite lives large while ordinary citizens are denied life-saving care.
A View Through the Chaos
Nature, 2017
Crisis in Syria is putting data science to the test
HIV scientists have failed to protect women at the most risk
Vice, 2016
Searching for an Anecdote to Konzo, a Crippling Disease from Bitter Cassava
Global Health NOW, 2016
BIOMEDICINE & TECH
CRISPR the Genesis Engine
Wired, 2015
Easy DNA editing will remake the world: Buckle up.
Big Pharma’s Cost-Cutting Challenger
Nature, 2016
A non-profit is proving that drug development need not cost a billion.
A Reboot for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
Nature, 2018
Scientists are finding their footing after a rocky past of study on the debilitating disease
The Next Chapter for African Genomics
Nature, 2020
Nigeria is poised to become a hub of genetics research, but stubborn challenges block the way
A biologist exits his prestigious post years after harassing a student. Why did it take so long?
Nature, 2020
Faster, better, cheaper: The rise of Crispr in disease detection
Nature, 2019
Researchers in Nigeria combine genes with traditional breeding to make cassava stronger
Nature, 2018
Blockchain could let people share their medical data, without losing control
Nature, 2018
Questionable “Young Blood” transfusions offered to remedy age — for $8,000
MIT Tech Review, 2017
EVOLUTION, ECOLOGY, ARCHEOLOGY
Digging Through the World’s Oldest Graveyard
Nautilus, 2014 and featured in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2015
In Ethiopia, paleontologists are pushing back the clock on humanity’s origins
Rediscovering Ancient Nubia Before It’s Too Late
Undark, 2018
Long ignored by white explorers, today’s archeologists are racing to uncover remnants of the ancient civilization in modern-day Sudan
Sexual competition among ducks wreaks havoc on penis size
Nature, 2017
Evolution, You’re Drunk
Nautilus, 2014
DNA studies topple the ladder of complexity
Strange Worms Are Taking Their Place in Your Family Tree
Nautilus, 2016
The Cambrian explosion of life now seems more like a whimper.
A Can of Worms
Nature, 2011
Obscure, tiny creatures take center stage in a battle over the tree of life
Sick and Down
Science News, 2008
The Evolutionary Origins of Depression
Documenting California’s changing deserts and mountains
Nature, 2017
Discovery of vibrant sea life prompts worries over seabed mining
Nature, 2018
Odds & Ends
Motobabes
Roads & Kingdoms, 2014
As the legion of women bikers grows nationwide, I open up the throttle with a New York City club
How I ran from war: 70 Miles in flip-flops (‘as told’ to Amy Maxmen)
Wired, 2015
Top online archives for unpublished research like my doctoral thesis
The Scientist, 2013