Charles Ornstein
Charles Ornstein is managing editor, local, overseeing ProPublica’s local initiatives. These include offices in the Midwest, South, Southwest and Northwest, a joint initiative with the Texas Tribune, and the Local Reporting Network, which works with local news organizations to produce accountability journalism on issues of importance to their communities.
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Charles Ornstein is managing editor, local, overseeing ProPublica’s local initiatives. These include offices in the Midwest, South, Southwest and Northwest, a joint initiative with the Texas Tribune, and the Local Reporting Network, which works with local news organizations to produce accountability journalism on issues of importance to their communities. From 2008 to 2017, he was a senior reporter covering health care and the pharmaceutical industry. He then worked as a senior editor and deputy managing editor.
Prior to joining ProPublica, he was a member of the metro investigative projects team at the Los Angeles Times. In 2004, he and Tracy Weber were lead authors on a series on Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, a troubled hospital in South Los Angeles. The articles won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service.
In 2009, he and Weber worked on a series of stories that detailed serious failures in oversight by the California Board of Registered Nursing and nursing boards around the country. The work was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for public service.
Projects edited or co-edited by Ornstein have won the Pulitzer Prize for public service, the Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, the Scripps Howard Impact Award, the IRE Award, the Online Journalism Award and other major journalism honors.
He previously worked at the Dallas Morning News, where he covered health care on the business desk and worked in the Washington bureau. Ornstein is a past president of the Association of Health Care Journalists and an adjunct journalism professor at Columbia University. Ornstein is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
We Still Don’t Know How Many People Are in the Hospital With COVID-19
Many states report coronavirus cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations differently, and the federal government is way behind on data tracking. Without consistent information, the U.S. won’t be able to properly respond as new coronavirus hot spots emerge.
What We Know — and Don’t Know — About Possible Coronavirus Treatments Promoted by Trump
There isn’t enough evidence that decades-old anti-malarial drugs work for the treatment or prevention of coronavirus, but here’s what we do know so far.
Coronavirus Hospitalization Numbers Are Spotty. Journalists, Help Us Fill in the Gaps.
We don’t know how many COVID-19 patients are hospitalized across the country, because only some states are publishing data. Journalists can join our effort to gather this data from every state.
Lupus Patients Can’t Get Crucial Medication After President Trump Pushes Unproven Coronavirus Treatment
Trump’s unproven claim that hydroxychloroquine could be used to treat COVID-19 has led to hoarding, putting Lupus patients and others at even greater risk. As of Saturday afternoon, Anna Valdez had 27 pills left. That number is now down to 25.
No, President Trump, the Coronavirus Is Nothing Like H1N1 Swine Flu Either
The president has been comparing his administration’s handling of COVID-19 to the way President Barack Obama’s team dealt with the H1N1 outbreak. He is wrong.
The Five Questions Reporters Need to Ask Hospitals and Local Officials About Coronavirus
ProPublica launched a tool that allows you to look up how the number of patients with COVID-19 could affect hospitals in your area under various scenarios. Here’s how to write a local accountability story with the data.
No Matter What Some Public Officials Say, the Message You Need to Hear Is “Stay Home”
Mixed messaging from all levels of government is putting Americans at risk and will speed the spread of the coronavirus. No matter what politicians say, public health experts agree. Stay home, even if you feel fine.
This Coronavirus Is Unlike Anything in Our Lifetime, and We Have to Stop Comparing It to the Flu
Longtime health reporter Charles Ornstein says that comparing the novel coronavirus to the flu is dangerously inaccurate. Not one public health expert he trusts has called that comparison valid. Here’s why.
Are You in Coronavirus Quarantine? Tell Us What Authorities Told You So We Can Make Sure It’s Right.
We’re collecting instructions state and local health departments have given about coronavirus quarantines. Help us hear from every state and city.
Local Accountability Journalism Still Has a Huge Impact
Between the Local Reporting Network and ProPublica Illinois, our work shows that state leaders across the country are listening and things can change.
Local Reporting Network