Rebecca Hersher
Rebecca Hersher (she/her) is a reporter on NPR's Science Desk, where she reports on outbreaks, natural disasters, and environmental and health research. Since coming to NPR in 2011, she has covered the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, embedded with the Afghan army after the American combat mission ended, and reported on floods and hurricanes in the U.S. She's also reported on research about puppies. Before her work on the Science Desk, she was a producer for NPR's Weekend All Things Considered in Los Angeles.
Hersher was part of the NPR team that won a Peabody award for coverage of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and produced a story from Liberia that won an Edward R. Murrow award for use of sound. She was a finalist for the 2017 Daniel Schorr prize; a 2017 Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting fellow, reporting on sanitation in Haiti; and a 2015 NPR Above the Fray fellow, investigating the causes of the suicide epidemic in Greenland.
Prior to working at NPR, Hersher reported on biomedical research and pharmaceutical news for Nature Medicine.
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It is very difficult for people hospitalized with COVID-19 to communicate with their families. At one medical center, psychologists are helping with some of those tough conversations.
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EMTs are offering at-home coronavirus testing in at least four cities including New York City. The goal is to test people who might not seek it out on their own, and find people who need medical care.
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More Americans are breathing unhealthy air, even though overall air pollution has decreased in recent decades. In the tug-of-war between air regulations and climate change, global warming is winning.
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Improvisation And Retraining May Be Key To Saving Patients In New York's ICUsPulmonologists in New York hospitals are now supervising doctors from other specialties as they try to keep ICUs staffed and are deploying equipment in new ways. But COVID-19 is a demoralizing foe.
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Two temporary hospital facilities are open in New York City inside a major convention center and aboard a Navy hospital ship. But so far, both have far fewer patients than they can handle.
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More than 14,000 people have now been hospitalized in New York City for COVID-19. But two large overflow facilities have been operating far below their capacity.
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Many states are projected to have excessive demand for ventilator machines in the coming weeks, but no state government has formally asked hospitals to prepare for difficult and complex crisis triage.
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Early on, Bay Area cities adopted social distancing restrictions to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Health officials are optimistic about what they see so far — unlike in New York City.
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On-site testing was delayed for weeks at a Brooklyn hospital that has been designated COVID-19 only. Rapid on-site testing can help hospitals prevent the virus from spreading inside their facilities.
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Surging coronavirus infections mean that local officials in the hardest-hit cities are forced to take on new responsibilities that go far beyond their normal day jobs.