Frank McGwire
Frank McGwire connects provincial health policy, public safety decisions, and hard data to the real-world impact on people who rely on Manitoba’s services. He reports for Q Country 91.5FM, focusing on health systems, public health campaigns, and risk on the roads and in communities. His work blends straight news updates with deeper accountability pieces that track how government actions translate into wait times, eligibility rules, and outcomes for vulnerable groups.
Health system strain and access to care
McGwire’s health coverage centres on how well the system handles pressure, especially in emergency rooms and primary care. In a recent piece on emergency room wait times, he explains how a late-season surge in respiratory illnesses and ongoing staffing challenges have pushed median ER waits in Manitoba to four hours, noting how this compares with five years of data.
He uses clear, specific figures to show that waits have increased by nearly an hour over that period, framing the story around the experience of patients rather than abstract statistics. When reporting on expanded access to measles vaccines through pharmacies, he details the ministerial order that allows pharmacists to administer measles-containing vaccines to people aged two to 19 and stresses that the change takes effect immediately.
That article walks through what the policy means in practice, identifying the age group affected and positioning pharmacies as a new front-line access point for families.
Public health outbreaks and vaccination campaigns
Outbreak reporting is a defining strand of McGwire’s health work, with a particular focus on vaccination as a tool for protecting high-risk communities.
His coverage of the hepatitis A outbreak tracks how the situation began in northern Manitoba communities and later extended to more cases across the province, including Winnipeg, making clear that person-to-person contact drives most transmission. He sets out expanded eligibility for a single dose of free hepatitis A vaccine, listing affected First Nations communities, people travelling to or working in those areas, and households connected to them. The same piece names groups such as people experiencing homelessness, people who use drugs, and those with certain medical conditions as having access under existing risk-based criteria, showing his attention to the details that matter for those on the margins.
Across his outbreak and vaccine stories, McGwire relies on official case counts, policy language, and eligibility lists, but writes in straightforward prose that keeps the focus on who needs to act and why.
Provincial policy, economy and daily news roundups
Alongside health, McGwire regularly covers provincial decisions that affect the economy and cost of living, often through news digests that pull multiple stories into a single bulletin.
In pieces on trade disputes and tariffs, he reports on Canada’s plan to increase tariffs on selected American goods to 50 per cent and on Manitoba’s move to convene a trade council as new U.S. measures threaten jobs and exports. His coverage of rent control expansion outlines when the new rules take effect and ties them to the 2027 rent guideline, signalling how policy decisions will ripple through housing costs.
He also produces weekday “News” roundups that stitch together federal, provincial, and local developments, with timestamps and straightforward headlines that serve listeners and readers who need a quick survey of what has changed since the previous day. Whether he is writing about trade, housing, or other provincial decisions, McGwire keeps the emphasis on dates, thresholds, and practical consequences, mirroring the precision he brings to health stories.
Safety, infrastructure and environment
Public safety and infrastructure are recurring themes in McGwire’s work, particularly on highways, in connectivity projects, and around wildfires.
His reporting on Manitoba highway fatalities over a long weekend describes multiple crashes, notes the number of deaths, and situates those events within a broader climb in highway fatalities, treating traffic safety as an ongoing public-health issue rather than isolated incidents. In coverage of high-speed internet expansion, he explains that more than 10,000 homes are slated to be connected, listing specific communities and areas that will benefit, and presenting the project as a major infrastructure change for rural and remote residents. McGwire writes regularly about wildfires, documenting both worsening national risk and periods when Manitoba’s active fires drop and none are classified as out of control, marking “rare” points of stability against a backdrop of elevated danger.
These pieces combine environment, infrastructure, and safety, and they reinforce his broader pattern: tracking how government decisions and shifting risks alter conditions on the ground.
Interviews and rapid-fire format
Beyond written news, McGwire extends his reporting style into an interview format with Rapid Fire with McGwire. The feature is introduced as a premier or debut episode at Q Country 91.5FM, positioned as an ongoing series where he speaks with guests and invites suggestions for future interviews.
The concept reflects his focus on concise, high-impact information, framing conversations in a way that matches the brisk, fact-first approach seen in his news articles.
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Allan Levine
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Apoorva Mandavilli
Apoorva Mandavilli covers the collision of infectious disease science, vaccine policy and public health agencies for The New York Times, following how research, regulation and politics shape outbreaks and access to vaccines. She reports on science and global health with a steady focus on infectious diseases and pandemics, including Covid-19, mpox, H.I.V., malaria and tuberculosis, treating them as ongoing global threats. Her work explains complex epidemiology and virology in clear narratives about risk, evidence and the consequences of scientific decisions. She repeatedly returns to vaccine policy, law and misinformation, tracing how court fights and agency disputes affect immunization schedules and public trust. She also reports on global health programs, funding cuts and inequity in care and technology. A longtime science journalist and former founding editor in chief of Spectrum, she has written widely on science and health and received major honors for medical science reporting and pandemic coverage.