Scott Hensley
Scott Hensley edits stories about health, biomedical research and pharmaceuticals for NPR's Science desk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has led the desk's reporting on the development of vaccines against the coronavirus.
Hensley has worked on award-winning investigations in collaboration with journalistic partners.
He was the lead NPR editor on an investigation with the Center for Public Integrity in 2018 that exposed drug industry influence on the choices of preferred medicines by Medicaid programs. The work won the 2019 Gerald Loeb Award for audio reporting.
In 2017, Hensley was the lead NPR editor on an investigation with Kaiser Health News that showed how the pharmaceutical industry exploits government incentives intended to encourage the development of treatments for rare diseases. The stories won the 2019 digital award from the National Institute for Health Care Management.
Hensley has been editing in his current role since 2019. He joined NPR in 2009 to launch Shots, a blog that expanded to become a digital destination for NPR health coverage.
Before NPR, Hensley was a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal. He was the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal Health Blog, which focused on the intersection of health and business. As a reporter, he covered the drug industry and the Human Genome Project.
Hensley served on the board of the Association of Health Care Journalists from 2012 to 2020.
He has a bachelor's degree in natural sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a master's in journalism from Columbia University.
Before becoming a journalist, Hensley worked in the medical device industry. He remains, now and forever, a lover of Dobermans, lacrosse and Callinectes sapidus.
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The Food and Drug Administration finds "no specific safety concerns" that would stand in the way of authorization of the vaccine for emergency use. Effectiveness is 95% after two doses. -
The Federal Reserve on Monday announced several policies designed to strengthen markets during the coronavirus crisis. Still, stocks are down, minutes after the opening bell.
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While a majority of Americans know about naloxone, there is confusion about the fact that in most places a prescription isn't required to obtain the emergency overdose treatment. -
Since 1970, the national colorectal cancer death rate has been cut in half. But progress has lagged in the Lower Mississippi Delta, Appalachia and counties in eastern Virginia and North Carolina.
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Abuse of narcotic painkillers is a national problem. But it turns out that where you live can make a big difference in how likely you are to get a prescription for the medicines.
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The legal wrangling over who should be allowed to buy the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill without a prescription came to an end this year. A federal judge ruled that the emergency contraceptive couldn't be withheld from girls 16 and younger. Despite the legal ruling, many Americans support age minimums and parental consent. -
The rate at which American women are having babies fell again in 2011, continuing a decline that's been under way for years. Births to teenagers hit another low, while births to older women rose slightly.
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The latest NPR-Truven Health Analytics Health Poll finds that most Americans favor physician-assisted suicide for people with less than six months to live. But the survey found opposition to assisted suicide for people in severe pain who aren't terminally ill or for those with disabilities. -
Come Friday, states will have to decide whether they will run their own insurance exchanges under President Obama's sweeping health law. We had a rapid-fire chat about the exchanges on Twitter. -
Thanks to vigorous efforts to eradicate the poliovirus through vaccination, there are only three countries on the face of the earth where polio is still endemic.
