Caroline Chen
Caroline Chen was a national reporter for ProPublica covering health care.
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Caroline Chen previously covered health care for ProPublica. She has written about public health, hospitals, drugmakers and clinical trials, highlighting disparities in patient access, broken funding models and abuses of power.
Her 2020 coverage of the coronavirus pandemic included investigations into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s early failures to contain the outbreak, vaccine inequities and distortion of COVID-19 data. Her work was part of ProPublica’s coverage recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service.
Her 2019 stories on a heart transplant program in New Jersey that prioritized metrics over patient care won the Livingston Award for local reporting. Her story on racial disparities in cancer clinical trials with Riley Wong in 2018 won the June L. Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism in online/multimedia reporting.
Her writing has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and NPR. Previously, she worked at Bloomberg News, where her coverage included the unraveling of blood test maker Theranos and the 2014 Ebola outbreak. She received her master’s degree from the Toni Stabile Program for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University, where she was awarded a Pulitzer traveling fellowship.
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What ProPublica Is Doing About Diversity in 2021
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Cómo se incorpora la inequidad en el sistema de vacunación de Estados Unidos
Las personas que reúnen los requisitos para recibir la vacuna contra el coronavirus nos dicen que se están topando con barreras que están diseñadas en los mismos sistemas destinados a atender a las personas con mayor riesgo de morir por la enfermedad. Tenemos previsto continuar el seguimiento de estos obstáculos.
How Inequity Gets Built Into America’s Vaccination System
People eligible for the coronavirus vaccine tell us they are running up against barriers that are designed into the very systems meant to serve those most at risk of dying of the disease. We plan to continue tracking these roadblocks.
Fauci: Vaccines for Kids as Young as First Graders Could Be Authorized by September
For this to happen by the start of the next school year, trials need to prove the vaccine is safe and effective in children. Experts say manufacturers aren’t moving quickly enough.
Why Opening Restaurants Is Exactly What the Coronavirus Wants Us to Do
Governors continue to open indoor dining and other activities before vaccinations become widespread. Experts warn this could create superspreading playgrounds for dangerous variants and squander our best shot at getting the pandemic under control.
How Many Vaccine Shots Go to Waste? Several States Aren’t Counting.
The CDC says health facilities should report unused and spoiled COVID-19 vaccines, but many are failing to do so. At a time when there aren’t enough shots to meet demand, significant numbers may be going in the trash.
How Operation Warp Speed Created Vaccination Chaos
States are struggling to plan their vaccination programs with just one week’s notice for how many doses they’ll receive from the federal government. The incoming Biden administration is deciding what to do with this dysfunctional system.
Only Seven of Stanford’s First 5,000 Vaccines Were Designated for Medical Residents
Stanford Medicine officials relied on a faulty algorithm to determine who should get vaccinated first, and it prioritized some high-ranking doctors over patient-facing medical residents.
Vaccinating Black Americans Is Essential. Key States Aren’t Doing the Work to Combat Hesitancy
States and the federal government also don’t reliably collect data so we won’t have a good idea of whether the vaccine is reaching these critical populations.