Richard Knox
Since he joined NPR in 2000, Knox has covered a broad range of issues and events in public health, medicine, and science. His reports can be heard on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, and newscasts.
Among other things, Knox's NPR reports have examined the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa, North America, and the Caribbean; anthrax terrorism; smallpox and other bioterrorism preparedness issues; the rising cost of medical care; early detection of lung cancer; community caregiving; music and the brain; and the SARS epidemic.
Before joining NPR, Knox covered medicine and health for The Boston Globe. His award-winning 1995 articles on medical errors are considered landmarks in the national movement to prevent medical mistakes. Knox is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Columbia University. He has held yearlong fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Universities, and is the author of a 1993 book on Germany's health care system.
He and his wife Jean, an editor, live in Boston. They have two daughters.
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Two infected airline passengers may have helped spread mumps from Iowa to several other Midwestern states, health officials say. The epidemic -- Iowa may have as many as 600 cases -- is a new example of how quickly diseases can spread through air travel. The outbreak is the largest in 18 years. -
Massachusetts has enacted legislation to provide health insurance for virtually every citizen within the next three years. The measure would be the first in the nation to require people to buy health insurance if they don't get it at work. -
The Massachusetts legislature has enacted a bill designed to provide health insurance for nearly all its citizens. If Gov. Mitt Romney signs it, the state would become the first in the nation to require all individuals to have health coverage or pay a penalty.
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Lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill Tuesday that would make Massachusetts the first state to require that all of its citizens have some form of health insurance.
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Now that the deadly bird flu virus has spread to poultry in northern Nigeria, experts say it is almost certain to spread further in Africa. Nigeria's poultry population is estimated at 140 million birds, and the nation appears ill-equipped to stamp out the virus.
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The World Health Organization confirmed on Thursday that two teenagers in Turkey have died from bird flu. In the U.S., the Seattle region one of the few areas preparing in earnest to face a flu pandemic. -
If faced with a bird flu pandemic, the Bush administration would divert the nation's limited supplies of the antiviral drug Tamiflu to medical personnel, says Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt.
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Scientists have pieced together the virus that caused the deaths of tens of millions of people in the 1918 flu pandemic. The work is providing new insights into how a strain of flu can become so lethal.
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A new study shows that regular use of aspirin and painkillers such as ibuprofen is highly effective at preventing colon cancer in women. Even so, experts say people shouldn't take painkillers to prevent cancer -- only high doses proved effective.
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A new study shows an experimental drug helps people with Type 2 diabetes lose weight, control their blood sugar, and improve their cholesterol readings. But some medical obesity specialists caution that potential risks -- including depression -- might not justify the benefits.
