Jason Beaubien
ReporterJason 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.
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It's also the first vaccine against a parasitic disease in humans. But there are issues to consider, from its rate of effectiveness to the dosage schedule. -
The WHO cited a scientific study published last week suggesting that proposed COVID-19 drug hydroxychloroquine may do more harm than good in halting its study to review data. -
The 73rd annual World Health Assembly, which begins Monday, will be held virtually for the first-time ever. It will also be focused on the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. -
The World Health Organization has released the latest data on measles. The increase in cases is notable — and a sign of how much work needs to be done to address the outbreak. -
Despite progress against the disease, roughly 2 million people are infected with the virus every year.
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From his childhood as a herd boy, Nelson Mandela went on to lead the African National Congress' struggle against South Africa's racially oppressive apartheid regime. For his efforts, he spent 27 years behind bars as a political prisoner. In 1994, he became his country's first elected black leader. Mandela died on Thursday. He was 95. -
The appearance of an unusual type of poliovirus in Pakistan exposed gaps in vaccination campaigns. When a community isn't well immunized against polio, the weakened virus used in the oral vaccine can mutate and then infect unvaccinated people. -
On the campaign trail, Josefina Vazquez Mota avoids marketing herself as a presidential candidate specifically for women. One expert says the nomination shows change, but that's not Vazquez Mota's only challenge. -
The U.S.-Mexico border region could be the key to rejuvenating manufacturing in North America. Business are betting that quick delivery times and agile, streamlined companies will have a competitive advantage over Asian firms. -
The U.S. deported a record number of illegal immigrants last year. Many were released in Mexico's dangerous border cities, which are struggling to provide even temporary shelter.
