Joe Neel
Joe Neel is NPR's deputy senior supervising editor and a correspondent on the Science Desk.
As a leader of NPR's award-winning health and science team, Neel directs coverage of breaking news in health and science, ranging from disease outbreaks and advances in medical research to debates over health reform and public health.
Joe also plays a key role in overseeing the Science Desk's award-winning enterprise reporting. Among his current projects and responsibilities, Neel supervises the Monday "Your Health" segment on Morning Edition. He also directs several ongoing editorial partnerships. One, a partnership with Kaiser Health News and public radio member stations, focuses on health care in the United States. Another is a polling project on health issues with the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Neel has played a key role in expanding the network's coverage of global health and development issues. He is currently focused on domestic health issues, including cutting-edge biomedical research and developments in the health industry, such as the Affordable Care Act.
In 2008, he launched NPR's "Your Health" podcast and helped launch and grow "Shots," NPR's health blog, in 2010.
In addition to his responsibilities at NPR's Science Desk, Neel also regularly serves as newsroom manager, overseeing the network's overall news coverage.
During his tenure as editor, NPR's health reporters and correspondents have won numerous awards, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the National Academy of Sciences Communication Award, the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society for Professional Journalists, the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting on Congress, the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Journalism Prize, and the Association of Health Care Journalism award. Neel was awarded the prestigious Kaiser Family Foundation Media Fellowship in 2007.
Neel started filing stories about medicine and health as a freelancer for NPR in 1994 and joined the staff two years later.
He earned bachelor degrees from Washington University in St. Louis in both biology and German literature and language. He also studied biology at the Universitaet Tuebingen in Germany.
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A Catholic priest and the Indian Red Cross have created what some say is a model for AIDS care in the developing world: a combination hospital and community center.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expanding its flu vaccine recommendations this year. Before, the CDC advised the vaccine for infants between 6 months and 23 months. Now, it says healthy children between 6 months and 5 years old should get vaccinated.
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For the first time in 40 years, Medicare recipients can now get help in paying for prescription drugs. But with dozens of private insurers offering their own version of the new Medicare drug plan, analysts say the only sure bet for those eligible is that they'll be confused about which plan to choose. To help make sense of the options, science editor Joe Neel answers some of the key questions.
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Supplies of flu vaccine are expected to be ample this year, but the CDC warns it may take a month to get distribution up to speed. Public health officials recommend that those not at high risk for flu wait until the end of October to get a shot.
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New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered that any residents still in New Orleans be forcibly removed, citing the risks of toxic floodwaters. Environmental Reporter Elizabeth Shogren and Health Editor Joe Neel provide an update on the risks posed by the polluted waters.
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NPR surveyed medical schools to find out how much they depend on money from the drug industry.
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Research suggests several popular painkillers may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular problems. NPR's Joe Neel answers questions about naproxen, Celebrex and other painkillers now under scrutiny.
