Joanne Silberner
Joanne Silberner is a health policy correspondent for National Public Radio. She covers medicine, health reform, and changes in the health care marketplace.
Silberner has been with NPR since 1992. Prior to that she spent five years covering consumer health and medical research at U.S. News & World Report. In addition she has worked at Science News magazine, Science Digest, and has freelanced for various publications. She has been published in The Washington Post, Health, USA Today, American Health, Practical Horseman, Encyclopedia Britannica, and others.
She was a fellow for a year at the Harvard School of Public Health, and from 1997-1998, she had a Kaiser Family Foundation media fellowship. During that fellowship she chronicled the closing of a state mental hospital. Silberner also had a fellowship to study the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Silberner has won awards for her work from the Society of Professional Journalists, the New York State Mental Health Association, the March of Dimes, Easter Seals, the American Heart Association, and others. Her work has also earned her a Unity Award and a Clarion Award.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Silberner holds her B.A. in biology. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
She currently resides in Washington, D.C.
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NPR's Joanne Silberner reports on a two-day meeting convened by the National Cancer Institute to talk about early events in pregnancy and the risk of breast cancer. Much of the meeting is closed to the public, and there's considerable discussion about abortion and the risk of breast cancer. The N.C.I. altered its scientific summary of the risks, changing its position that the risk is all-but-non-existent to a stance that science supports a risk. Critics charge that politics are influencing science on this topic, but opponents of abortion say the institute is finally interpreting the science correctly.
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Two doctors work on an easy-to-administer drug regimen aimed at eradicating filariasis, a mosquito-borne disease affecting 43 million people in the tropics. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.
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NPR's Joanne Silberner has the story of how the Bush administration is approaching talk about sex in anti-abortion campaigns. She reports on a case in which administration officials quashed a family education program aimed at parents. They found some of the language used in a video to be objectionable.
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Outbreaks of the Norwalk virus on cruise ships in recent weeks have brought the bug widespread publicity. The virus isn't new. Gastrointestinal illnesses caused by what's really a family of viruses have been diagnosed for 30 years. Scientists now are referring to the group of viruses as "Norovirus." NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.
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A new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that flu deaths are on the rise in the United States. Fatalities related to influenza increased from about 20,000 per year in the 1970s to about 36,000 per year in the 1990s. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.
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Reproductive researchers are skeptical of a claim that a human clone was born Thursday to a 31-year-old American woman. At the very least the announcement by Clonaid, a business with ties to the Raelian religious movement, is likely to intensify a debate over the ethics and practicality of cloning. Hear NPR's Bob Edwards and NPR's Joanne Silberner.
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If today's claim of a cloned baby turns out to be a hoax, it won't be the first time. Twenty-four years ago, journalist David Rorvik published a highly publicized book that claimed a reclusive millionaire had assembled a team that cloned a human. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.
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Research suggests vacations are usually a good idea, health-wise. But at least one study finds that time-off isn't good for everybody. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports on the health effects of vacation.
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Health officials in Maine plan emergency meetings Thursday in response to a Tuesday court decision that could shut down a program that helps lower-income people buy prescription drugs. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.
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President Bush announces a plan to make an effective but risky smallpox vaccine available to all Americans. Military personnel and health care workers will get the innoculations first -- the front-line defense against a potential bioterror attack. Availability of vaccine played a big part in the administration's approach to the threat. NPR's Joanne Silberner reports.