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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Alarmed by a 10% uptick in cases nationwide, the federal government is mobilizing COVID-19 surge response teams to help snuff out hotspots around the United States.
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COVID-19 cases are increasing in many, poorly-vaccinated parts of the globe. We check in with reporters in Australia, Sierre Leone and with our science team to talk about the Delta variant's threats.
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Scientists successfully treated a rare disease with the experimental gene-editing technique. It could open the door to new ways of treating more common disorders in the future.
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As the Delta variant accelerates its spread in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci calls the dangerous mutant the "greatest threat" to the nation's battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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More contagious than other variants, and maybe more likely to cause severe disease, Delta is spreading so fast in the U.S. it could cause another surge this summer or fall, according to new research. -
The CDC has declared that the dangerous new variant first spotted in India as a "variant of concern," meaning it poses a significant threat to unvaccinated people.
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A surge in pet adoptions has increased demand for dogs imported from around the world. Most are fine, but federal officials turned up 450 dogs in 2020 with false records — 50% more than in 2019. -
More than two dozen states have reduced how frequently they report what's happening with the pandemic, raising alarm among some public health experts. -
As Memorial Day approaches, public health officials are optimistic about the state of the nation's battle against the pandemic, but caution the pandemic is far from over.
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The CDC has decided that the focus of investigations of cases in which COVID-19 vaccines fail will be on people who get hospitalized or die — but critics say that's short-sighted.
