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Global Journalist: Covering Two Deadly Viruses

Silhouette of a mosquito seen through a microscope
Felipe Dana
/
AP

At first, it just seemed like an odd story to pursue during a quiet post-Christmas week in the newsroom in 2015. But New York Times reporter Donald G. McNeil Jr.'s interest in what would become the Zika epidemic has made him something of  an expert on viral outbreaks.

After his work on Zika, the virus that ravaged newborns in the tropics, McNeil now finds himself covering the even more deadly coronavirus that is causing COVID-19. In this episode, he gives a reporter's view of the ethics of covering a pandemic while a public health official, the University of Missouri's Lynelle Phillips, offers a different perspective.

Host: Isabella Paxton

Guests:

  • Donald McNeil Jr.
  • Lynelle Phillips

Producers: Brendan Hall, Katharine Finnerty, Regan Mertz, Margo Wagner, Tom Kavanaugh, Jacob Faber, Hannah France, Caitlin King
Audio engineer: Trevor Hook

KATHY KIELY is a veteran reporter and editor with a multimedia portfolio and a passion for transparency, free speech and teaching. After a long career covering politics in Washington, Kiely moved into the classroom full-time because, she says, universities are the laboratories that will discover the formula for making fact-based journalism viable again.
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