Richard Knox
Since he joined NPR in 2000, Knox has covered a broad range of issues and events in public health, medicine, and science. His reports can be heard on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, and newscasts.
Among other things, Knox's NPR reports have examined the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa, North America, and the Caribbean; anthrax terrorism; smallpox and other bioterrorism preparedness issues; the rising cost of medical care; early detection of lung cancer; community caregiving; music and the brain; and the SARS epidemic.
Before joining NPR, Knox covered medicine and health for The Boston Globe. His award-winning 1995 articles on medical errors are considered landmarks in the national movement to prevent medical mistakes. Knox is a graduate of the University of Illinois and Columbia University. He has held yearlong fellowships at Stanford and Harvard Universities, and is the author of a 1993 book on Germany's health care system.
He and his wife Jean, an editor, live in Boston. They have two daughters.
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Half of Americans say they've had a major stressful event in the past year, according to a poll by NPR, the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Here's how it hurts. -
Two new drugs for hepatitis C can save lives. They are also wildly expensive, costing $66,000 to $84,000 per person. Insurers face paying billions for treatment, or explicitly rationing vital care. -
New advice to reduce heart attacks and strokes could more than double the number of Americans taking cholesterol-lowering statins to 56 million. The expansion could cost as much as $7 billion a year. -
There's evidence that many standard treatments for back pain — including surgery, spinal injections and painkillers — are often ineffective and can even worsen and prolong the problem.
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Earlier efforts to use gene therapy to treat a rare immune disorder in young children failed when some of the children got leukemia. Scientists say they think they may have figured it out, with eight children now living normal toddler lives. -
The first in a new class of drugs that can cure the viral infection that is the leading cause of liver failure and liver cancer is poised for a marketing green light from the Food and Drug Administration. More than 3 million Americans have hepatitis C, but most don't know it. -
More than 12 million Americans buy health insurance on their own, and many are getting cancellation notices because their individual coverage does not meet the standards of the Affordable Care Act. This is causing anxiety and anger — especially since most of these people can't get onto the healthcare.gov website to figure out their options for 2014.
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The majority of new HIV infections among gay men in the U.S. these days occur within committed couples. So researchers are piloting a strategy that's been successful in Africa. Gay couples in several cities have tried it and say the benefits are unexpected. -
Scientists are reporting an advance in the science of aging — and maybe even a clue on how to reverse some of aging's effects. They have evidence that lifestyle changes already known to be good for you — healthy diet, exercise, reducing stress — may prevent the chromosomes in our cells from unraveling. It's all about little caps on our chromosomes called telomeres.
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Pockets of malaria that are resistant to the frontline drug have recently emerged in Southeast Asia. Health workers worry the problem could spread to Africa. To stay ahead of the parasite, scientists have developed a fast way to detect resistant malaria and map its spread through a community.
