Devi Shastri
Devi Shastri is a public health reporter at The Associated Press whose coverage tracks how infectious disease outbreaks, misinformation and gaps in basic services shape health outcomes at the community level. She concentrates on the intersection of housing access, the social safety net and medical misinformation, returning repeatedly to the ways systems either support or fail people during crises. Her stories range from data-heavy national outbreak reporting to practical guidance pieces and fact checks, but the consistent focus is on real-world consequences for families, patients and front-line providers.
Measles outbreaks and vaccination gaps
Shastri devotes a large share of her reporting to measles, documenting how sustained outbreaks have pushed the United States and other countries into their worst measles years in decades. She covers national case counts, noting when annual totals surpass prior records and explaining how clusters in states such as South Carolina, Utah and Arizona drive those spikes.
Her work on Utah’s prolonged outbreak, which has stretched beyond a year with hundreds of cases, shows how a single persistent cluster can reshape statewide public health priorities.
She follows outbreaks county by county, detailing quarantines, public exposures and school disruptions as local officials attempt to contain spread.
In South Carolina, her stories walk through the rapid growth of cases, spillover into neighboring states and the strain on families managing repeated quarantines for schoolchildren. Coverage of Ohio outbreaks, often syndicated through regional partners, underscores her habit of connecting local developments to the national picture.
Shastri also reports on the loss of measles elimination status in countries like Canada, tying sustained transmission to policy and vaccination trends. She examines how myths about the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine have taken root in specific communities, including detailed reporting on fear and misinformation in Minnesota’s Somali community and the resulting declines in vaccination rates.
Her fact-check work, including a piece scrutinizing claims by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about U.S. measles controls, shows a clear commitment to testing high-profile statements against data and expert consensus.
Articles highlighting the particular vulnerability of babies too young for the MMR shot demonstrate how she brings epidemiological detail down to the level of household risk and parental decision-making.
Mental health, crisis lines and youth wellbeing
Beyond infectious disease, Shastri reports extensively on mental health, focusing on crisis services and outcomes for young people.
She covers federal survey data on youth mental health, substance use and addiction, drawing out encouraging trends while noting areas where problems persist. Her work on the 988 suicide and crisis hotline quantifies impact, reporting that thousands fewer teens and young adults died by suicide than projected after the line’s launch.
This kind of analysis blends epidemiology with service evaluation and keeps attention on measurable changes rather than rhetoric.
Shastri writes guidance pieces on how to support someone in a mental health crisis, blending expert advice with clear, stepwise instructions for recognizing warning signs and engaging appropriate help. She follows policy developments around specialized crisis services, including coverage of efforts to relaunch an LGBTQ+ option on 988 and the disputes over which organizations are included in that work. Across these stories, she treats mental health as a core public health issue, not a niche topic, and consistently ties individual experiences back to broader system performance and access questions.
Healthy aging and everyday safety advice
Shastri’s beat includes a notable strand of service journalism on healthy aging, falls and safety during extreme conditions. She explains strength and mobility tests that clinicians use to gauge aging, emphasizing both what these assessments can reveal and their limits.
In pieces on fall prevention, she reports that one in four older adults fall each year and then moves into concrete steps - such as removing small rugs, improving lighting and adding grab bars - to reduce risk inside the home. Her stories often incorporate exercises like tai chi, chair yoga and walking, offering accessible options for people with varying levels of mobility.
She extends this practical approach to environmental hazards, including guidance on staying safe during extreme cold when power is out. These articles break complex health and safety concepts into simple actions, backed by expert sources, while still situating them within broader conversations about aging, housing quality and resilience. Even in pieces about seasonal threats such as West Nile virus, she balances case counts and surveillance data with direct advice on prevention and bite avoidance, keeping the focus on what readers can do.
Health misinformation, social media and access to care
Shastri frequently examines how health information spreads - and misfires - on social media, and what that means for public understanding.
Her coverage of health and wellness influencers lays out how many adults, especially under 50, now rely on social platforms and podcasts for health information. She spells out practical criteria for vetting online claims, urging scrutiny of credentials, alignment with scientific consensus and the quality of cited research, and warning against exaggerated promises and poorly interpreted studies.
These pieces sit alongside her vaccine misinformation reporting, forming a coherent thread around the risks of trusting unverified sources in high-stakes health decisions.
Her author biography notes that she covers housing access and the social safety net, connecting these structural factors to community health.
Reporting on rural pharmacies as crucial health access points shows how closures in small towns jeopardize everyday care, medication access and informal health advice. Across these stories, Shastri consistently links policy, infrastructure and communication to outcomes, whether she is writing about a single clinic in a remote town or national trends in crisis hotlines and disease surveillance. The through-line is an emphasis on how systems, information and trust determine whether communities weather health crises or are overwhelmed by them.
4 more health journalists.
Aislinn Antrim
Aislinn Antrim is an associate editorial director at Pharmacy Times and a journalist who connects clinical advances, regulation, and the changing role of pharmacists. She writes pharmacy-centered health coverage on chronic disease therapeutics, specialty and oncology care, workforce pressures, and advocacy. Her reporting explains FDA actions, policy shifts, drug pipelines, and the real-world effects of new evidence on patient care and pharmacy practice. She often uses interviews and expert conversations to show how pharmacists improve adherence, manage side effects, navigate access and benefits, and coordinate care with prescribers. She also covers burnout, staffing strain, and the future of pharmacy practice, with an eye on how policy and economics shape work at the dispenser.
Alex Cabrero
Alex Cabrero is an Emmy award-winning KSL TV reporter who covers where health, safety and community life meet, always focused on how decisions and events affect everyday people. He has been with KSL since 2004, bringing long experience in breaking news, public service coverage and human-centered features. His beat includes public health, emergency response, technology, local infrastructure, environment and science, framed through community well-being and resilience. He reports on issues like mental health initiatives, law enforcement staffing, environmental hazards, rescues, wildfire detection tools, land-use fights and scientific discoveries, making technical and policy details clear for a general audience. He also produces many positive, everyday-life features on families, veterans, farmers, sports and local traditions. His style is direct and conversational, often built around a central person or family whose experience carries the story across TV, digital and social platforms.
Alexandra Frost
Alexandra Frost is a freelance journalist and content marketing writer who turns expert-backed health and family guidance into clear, practical service stories. She covers consumer health, wellness, nutrition, preventive care, medical research, parenting, kids’ mental health, education, products, and lifestyle. Her reporting explains concerns such as inflammation, urinary symptoms, fiber, lung cancer screening, pain treatment, mobility, family dynamics, children’s technology use, and school readiness. She profiles clinicians and scientists, connects research to everyday decisions, and focuses on what readers should watch for, ask, or change. Frost currently writes across multiple outlets, including Good Housekeeping, Cincinnati Magazine, Wirecutter, Popular Science, Success, Healthline, Parents, Women’s Health, Reader’s Digest, Today’s Parent, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, TIME, Consumer Reports, Business Insider, and National Geographic. She also works as a freelance editor, media consultant, and content strategist.
Alexandra Pattillo
Alexandra Pattillo is a freelance journalist who pairs rigorous health and science reporting with intimate accounts of patients’ lives. She covers health, science and wellness for the BBC and other major outlets, including National Geographic, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Outside, CNN and Inverse. Her beat includes eating disorders, women’s health, perinatal mental health, brain health, youth sports, concussion, long-term Covid symptoms, attention, habits and behavioral science. She reports on emerging treatments such as psychedelic-assisted therapy for anorexia, testing evidence, safety and relapse risk. She explains complex research in plain language and examines how it shapes everyday choices. Her reporting uses in-depth interviews with patients, families, clinicians, researchers and coaches. Through the BBC’s Health Gap column, she also covers stigma, unequal access to care and gaps between lived experience and standard medical pathways.