Rob Stein
Rob Stein is a correspondent and senior editor on NPR's science desk.
An award-winning science journalist with more than 30 years of experience, Stein mostly covers health and medicine. He tends to focus on stories that illustrate the intersection of science, health, politics, social trends, ethics, and federal science policy. He tracks genetics, stem cells, cancer research, women's health issues, and other science, medical, and health policy news.
Before NPR, Stein worked at The Washington Post for 16 years, first as the newspaper's science editor and then as a national health reporter. Earlier in his career, Stein spent about four years as an editor at NPR's science desk. Before that, he was a science reporter for United Press International (UPI) in Boston and the science editor of the international wire service in Washington.
Stein's work has been honored by many organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the Association of Health Care Journalists. He was twice part of NPR teams that won Peabody Awards.
Stein frequently represents NPR, speaking at universities, international meetings and other venues, including the University of Cambridge in Britain, the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea, and the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.
Stein is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He completed a journalism fellowship at the Harvard School of Public Health, a program in science and religion at the University of Cambridge, and a summer science writer's workshop at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass.
-
President Trump and the first lady have contracted the coronavirus. At 74, Trump could be at risk of developing serious complications from the virus.
-
Some public health experts hope the growing availability of faster, cheaper tests could lead to a new strategy of widespread testing — one that could finally get the pandemic under control.
-
During an online forum sponsored by Harvard, Dr. Anthony Fauci discusses how his high-profile position has affected his family personally.
-
The National Institutes of Health is giving $248.7 million dollars to seven companies developing new technologies for testing, including use of the revolutionary gene-editing technique CRISPR.
-
With the coronavirus spreading out of control in many parts of the U.S., some experts say the strategy of testing and tracing can't contain the pandemic until lockdowns bring case numbers down.
-
A new NPR/Harvard analysis finds most states' testing efforts still fall far short of what's needed to beat back the pandemic. Find out how your state is doing.
-
New cases are rising in at least 20 states, even as restrictions on daily life continue to ease. The U.S. total represents more than 25% of the confirmed cases worldwide.
-
The federal government says that as of Aug. 1, all laboratories must include detailed demographic data when reporting test results in order to help fight the pandemic nationally.
-
CDC chief Robert Redfield says that earlier testing for the coronavirus would have been like "looking for a needle in a haystack." But other health experts dispute his assertion.
-
The CDC combines results of a test that spots people who are actively infected with results from another one that looks for antibodies. Scientists say it could create a false picture of the pandemic.