Michael Specter
The New Yorker
New York, NY, United States
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Past articles by Michael:
How the Fight Against COVID-19 Is Bringing About a Perilous Rise in Preventable Diseases in Poorer Nations
Michael Specter writes about how the closure of child-vaccination clinics, owing to the coronavirus pandemic, is leading to a surge in cases of measles and other diseases in Africa and parts of Asia. → Read More
Trump Is Right: Andrew Cuomo Should Accept F.D.A. Approval of a Coronavirus Vaccine
Michael Specter explains the process behind vaccine trials and the Food and Drug Administration’s evaluation of an eventual coronavirus vaccine, and argues that Andrew Cuomo and other anti-Trump governors around the country must recognize that the federal government’s procedures for vaccine approval are safe and trustworthy. → Read More
Should Trump Have Been Given Access to Regeneron’s Experimental COVID-19 Drug?
Michael Specter examines the risks and ethics behind granting President Trump access to Regeneron’s experimental REGN-COV2 drug to treat the coronavirus. → Read More
Trump’s Convention Push for a Coronavirus Cure Puts Politics Before Health
Michael Specter writes about the F.D.A.’s emergency-use authorization of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19, and about how Donald Trump’s insistence that we will have a cure before the election could undermine federal agencies’ ability to insure patients’ health and safety. → Read More
Trump’s Unprecedented Attacks on Our Public-Health System
The President’s refusal either to lead or to recognize the leadership of others has made it impossible to develop a national plan to combat the coronavirus. → Read More
Trump’s Firing of a Top Infectious-Disease Expert Endangers Us All
Michael Specter on Donald Trump’s firing of the vaccine expert Rick A. Bright, who says he was dismissed because he questioned the President’s touting of an unproven drug as a treatment for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. → Read More
The Coronavirus and the Gutting of America’s Public-Health System
Michael Specter on the history of the U.S. government defunding public-health programs, which are designed to prevent pandemics, such as the current coronavirus outbreak. → Read More
Donald Trump’s Anti-Globalist Response to a Global Coronavirus
Epidemics are not a zero-sum game; you cannot ignore one to defend against another. → Read More
The New Coronavirus and Preparing for the Next Viral Pandemic
Why not work on making vaccines that would protect broadly against this entire class of virus, rather than waiting for each one to attack us, and then try to fight back? → Read More
He Jiankui and the Implications of Experimenting with Genetically Edited Babies
The researcher claims that he edited children’s genes in order to make them resistant to infection from H.I.V. Unfortunately, biology rarely offers simple solutions to difficult problems. → Read More
Michael Specter
Michael Specter has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998, and has written frequently about AIDS, T.B., and malaria in the developing world, as well as about agricultural biotechnology, avian influenza, the world’s diminishing freshwater resources, and synthetic biology. His Profile subjects have included Dr. Oz, Peter Singer, Larry Kramer, and Richard Branson, along with Sean (P.… → Read More
Michael Specter
Michael Specter has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1998, and has written frequently about AIDS, T.B., and malaria in the developing world, as well as about agricultural biotechnology, avian influenza, the world’s diminishing freshwater resources, and synthetic biology. His Profile subjects have included Dr. Oz, Peter Singer, Larry Kramer, and Richard Branson, along with Sean (P.… → Read More
The Toll That the Mexico City Policy Will Take in Africa
Trump’s recent executive order affects funds that the U.S. sets aside to provide an array of health-care services for the poor throughout the world. → Read More
The Toll That the Mexico City Policy Will Take in Africa
Trump’s recent executive order affects funds that the U.S. sets aside to provide an array of health-care services for the poor throughout the world. → Read More
A Modest Proposal for the March for Science
Michael Specter on the objectives of the forthcoming March for Science on Washington, and how activists might better resist the agenda of President Trump. → Read More
The Deep Denialism of Donald Trump
This White House, unlike any other, has already crossed the threshold into a space where facts appear to mean nothing. → Read More
Trump’s Dangerous Support for Conspiracies About Autism and Vaccines
Asking Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to chair a commission on scientific integrity is like asking Ted Kaczynski to run the United States Postal Service. → Read More
Rewriting the Code of Life
Researchers hope to use the powerful biological tool to alter the genetic destiny of species and eliminate diseases. → Read More
Rewriting the Code of Life
Researchers hope to use the powerful biological tool to alter the genetic destiny of species and eliminate diseases. → Read More
Donald Trump’s Potemkin Physical with Dr. Oz
Trump got a “safe space” to talk—vaguely—about his health, but does Oz genuinely believe that kind of disingenuous consultation serves his millions of viewers? → Read More