Michaeleen Doucleff
Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD, is a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk. For nearly a decade, she has been reporting for the radio and the web for NPR's global health outlet, Goats and Soda. Doucleff focuses on disease outbreaks, cross-cultural parenting, and women and children's health.
In 2014, Doucleff was part of the team that earned a George Foster Peabody award for its coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. For the series, Doucleff reported on how the epidemic ravaged maternal health and how the virus spreads through the air. In 2019, Doucleff and Senior Producer Jane Greenhalgh produced a story about how Inuit parents teach children to control their anger. That story was the most popular one on NPR.org for the year; altogether readers have spent more than 16 years worth of time reading it.
In 2021, Doucleff published a book, called Hunt, Gather, Parent, stemming from her reporting at NPR. That book became a New York Times bestseller.
Before coming to NPR in 2012, Doucleff was an editor at the journal Cell, where she wrote about the science behind pop culture. Doucleff has a bachelor degree in biology from Caltech, a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Berkeley, California, and a master's degree in viticulture and enology from the University of California, Davis.
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Scientists are beginning to come up with answers to the question of how long antibodies from an infection can protect you — and what they'll protect you from.
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Another version of omicron is spreading in Asia and parts of Europe. And it shows signs that it could be slightly more contagious than omicron. Where did this new variant come from?
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The U.S. on Wednesday counted more than 480,000 COVID-19 cases in a single day. Cases increased nearly 70% over the past week, but hospitalizations have gone up only about 12%.
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Over the next month, scientists estimate that the U.S. could face a record-breaking 400,000 new cases each day — powered by the omicron variant. Hospitalizations in some areas already are rising.
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Scientists in South Africa have found that the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infections has dropped to about 30% for the omicron variant.
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Preliminary data out of South Africa suggest COVID vaccines are much less effective at stopping infection from the omicron variant, but there's hope the vaccines will protect against severe disease.
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You might want to cancel that holiday party, and definitely dust off your face mask. Don't panic, but do step up your precautions. Here's how.
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There's serious concern about the effectiveness of vaccines against the omicron strain. But there's also reason to be hopeful — especially for those who've had a booster.
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"This wave seems much faster than the delta wave. And we thought the delta wave was really fast. It's unbelievable," says Juliet Pulliam, the scientist who presented the new analysis at a conference.
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The World Health Organization deemed it a variant of concern, and the U.S. is banning travel from parts of Africa where it's spreading. Here's what scientists know and what they're trying to learn.