Jason Beaubien
Jason Beaubien is NPR's Global Health and Development Correspondent on the Science Desk.
In this role, he reports on a range of issues across the world. He's covered the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, mass cataract surgeries in Ethiopia, abortion in El Salvador, poisonous gold mines in Nigeria, drug-resistant malaria in Myanmar and tuberculosis in Tajikistan. He was part of a team of reporters at NPR that won a Peabody Award in 2015 for their extensive coverage of the West Africa Ebola outbreak. His current beat also examines development issues including why Niger has the highest birth rate in the world, can private schools serve some of the poorest kids on the planet and the links between obesity and economic growth.
Prior to becoming the Global Health and Development Correspondent in 2012, Beaubien spent four years based in Mexico City covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In that role, Beaubien filed stories on politics in Cuba, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the FMLN victory in El Salvador, the world's richest man and Mexico's brutal drug war.
For his first multi-part series as the Mexico City correspondent, Beaubien drove the length of the U.S./Mexico border making a point to touch his toes in both oceans. The stories chronicled the economic, social and political changes along the violent frontier.
In 2002, Beaubien joined NPR after volunteering to cover a coup attempt in the Ivory Coast. Over the next four years, Beaubien worked as a foreign correspondent in sub-Saharan Africa, visiting 27 countries on the continent. His reporting ranged from poverty on the world's poorest continent, the HIV in the epicenter of the epidemic, and the all-night a cappella contests in South Africa, to Afro-pop stars in Nigeria and a trial of white mercenaries in Equatorial Guinea.
During this time, he covered the famines and wars of Africa, as well as inspiring preachers and Nobel laureates. Beaubien was one of the first journalists to report on the huge exodus of people out of Sudan's Darfur region into Chad, as villagers fled some of the initial attacks by the Janjawid. He reported extensively on the steady deterioration of Zimbabwe and still has a collection of worthless Zimbabwean currency.
In 2006, Beaubien was awarded a Knight-Wallace fellowship at the University of Michigan to study the relationship between the developed and the developing world.
Beaubien grew up in Maine, started his radio career as an intern at NPR Member Station KQED in San Francisco and worked at WBUR in Boston before joining NPR.
-
A new report in The Lancet finds that in 2019, antibiotic-resistant bacteria killed 1.2 million people — more than were killed by malaria or HIV/AIDS. The problem is mounting in lower-income nations. -
A new analysis from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation shows nearly twice as many people worldwide died from antibiotic resistance in 2019 than from HIV/AIDS.
-
Some countries around the globe are still struggling to get people vaccinated. Dozens of countries still haven't gotten 10% of their populations vaccinated.
-
As the omicron variant of COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world, some countries have re-imposed lockdowns.
-
In the Peruvian Amazon, geography, religious beliefs and logistics make getting COVID-19 vaccines extremely difficult. But health care workers have not given up.
-
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first injectable medication for HIV prevention. Health advocates say it could be a game changer in protecting people against AIDS
-
More than 400 people who died of COVID were secretly interred in a mass grave on the outskirts of the city of Iquitos. Families are demanding a proper burial for their loved ones.
-
At a special session this week, the World Health Organization hopes to start sketching out a new world order. "We don't have rules of the game," says WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
-
An isolated city on the Amazon illustrates why Peru has the highest COVID death rate in the world. One infectious disease expert called the country's awful record the result of a "perfect storm."
-
Representatives from 194 countries will start negotiations on a possible new pandemic treaty. Officials say a lack of clarity on countries' obligations has hindered the response to COVID.
-
The World Health Organization is setting up a new committee to investigate the origins of the current pandemic and potential outbreaks in the future.
-
The WHO has given the green light to the first malaria vaccine. Thousands of people are afflicted by malaria every year in sub Saharan Africa. Young children are especially vulnerable to the disease.
