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.
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Epidemiologists are still puzzling over how much of an impact Thanksgiving had on the pandemic in the U.S. Meanwhile, infections, hospitalizations and deaths are still surging as Christmas approaches.
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As the first patient to receive an experimental treatment that relied on the gene-editing technique CRISPR continues to do well 17 months later, more patients seem to be benefiting, too. -
On Monday, health care workers began administering the first shots of a COVID-19 vaccine. NPR discusses the latest news and explores the challenges the U.S. could face in vaccinating people.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its recommendations. Now it says people without coronavirus symptoms need to quarantine for 10 days, or seven — if they then test negative.
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Social distancing fell dramatically between spring and fall and the gap between Democrats and Republicans widened. But both ends of the political spectrum agree on some measures to fight COVID-19. -
A survey shows social distancing dropped between April and late fall, especially in states currently hit hardest by COVID-19. The partisan chasm in support of measures to stop the virus widened.
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Federal health officials could reduce the quarantine from the currently recommended 14 days to as few as seven for people who test negative for the virus. -
Coronavirus Testing Has Gotten Better, But The U.S. Still Does Not Have Enough TestsDemand for COVID-19 testing has gone up as the virus surges across the nation. Luckily, testing has gotten better and people who want tests now have several options.
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Coronavirus case numbers are exploding across the country. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 reached 250,000 on Wednesday, with a caseload of over 11.3 million.
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The United States has surpassed 250,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday.
