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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The Biden administration is promising 61 million rapid at-home tests by the summer. But critics say that's too few and way too late. -
Daily numbers of new cases are finally starting to wane, and hospitalizations are down slightly. But health care systems are still overburdened and another resurgence remains a threat. -
Mask-wearing hit an all-time high, but other COVID-19 precautions are less common now than last spring, a survey finds. Experts worry we're ill-prepared for the spread of more infectious new variants. -
The U.S. conducts nearly 2 million coronavirus tests daily. A new analysis shows millions more are needed to protect the most vulnerable. Use our tool to see how your state is doing. -
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. -
An NPR analysis shows that the majority of counties with the highest COVID-19 death rates showed stronger support for Trump in 2020 than they did four years ago.
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A general increase in mask-wearing has been encouraging, U.S. public health experts say. But too few young people, especially, are social distancing and taking other steps to slow coronavirus' spread. -
The average wait time for results has dropped to about three days, but that is still too slow to keep infected people from unknowingly spreading the virus, researchers report. -
Some public health experts hope the growing availability of faster, cheaper tests could lead to a new strategy of widespread testing 鈥� one that could finally get the pandemic under control. -
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.