Maryn McKenna

Career Trajectory: From Investigative Reporting to Global Health Authority

Maryn McKenna’s career spans three decades, marked by a relentless focus on public health crises and their societal implications. After earning her MS from Northwestern University, she began as a newspaper reporter for outlets like The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, covering breaking news before pivoting to investigative health journalism. Her 2004 book Beating Back the Devil, profiling CDC disease detectives, established her as a voice in outbreak science. This was followed by Superbug (2010), a groundbreaking investigation of MRSA that exposed systemic failures in antibiotic stewardship.

Her 2017 bestseller Big Chicken cemented her reputation as a leading analyst of agricultural antibiotic misuse, tracing its link to drug-resistant infections. As a senior writer at WIRED (2020–2023), she spearheaded pandemic coverage while maintaining a focus on One Health issues. Today, as a contributing editor at Scientific American and Senior Fellow at Emory University, she bridges journalism and academia, teaching narrative strategies for science communication.

Key Articles and Impact

• The True Dollar Cost of the Anti-Vaccine Movement (WIRED, 2019) This investigative piece quantified the economic fallout of vaccine hesitancy through hospital cost data and lost productivity metrics. McKenna traced pediatric measles outbreaks to misinformation campaigns, interviewing epidemiologists and families affected by preventable diseases. The article’s novel methodology, comparing state-level vaccination rates with Medicaid expenditure spikes, became a benchmark for public health economists.
• Impact: Cited in CDC briefings and WHO policy discussions on combating vaccine misinformation.
• Why Are So Many People Getting a Meat Allergy? (Mosaic, 2018) McKenna explored the rise of alpha-gal syndrome, linking tick-borne illnesses to red meat allergies. Through patient narratives and immunology research, she revealed how climate change expanded tick habitats while industrial farming practices increased exposure risks. The article featured rare interviews with USDA researchers studying cross-species pathogen transmission.
• Impact: Prompted NIH funding allocations for alpha-gal research and inspired FDA labeling reforms.
• He Was Dying. Antibiotics Weren’t Working. Then Doctors Tried a Forgotten Treatment. (Mother Jones, 2017) This narrative documented phage therapy’s revival through a patient with antibiotic-resistant Pseudomonas. McKenna detailed the regulatory hurdles facing experimental antimicrobials, contrasting U.S. and Georgian (country) medical protocols. Her access to FDA review panels provided unprecedented insight into antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policy debates.
• Impact: Influenced BARDA’s 2021 funding initiative for phage therapy clinical trials.

Beat Analysis and Pitching Recommendations

1. Propose Stories Linking Agricultural Practices to Human Health Outcomes

McKenna consistently connects farm antibiotic use to clinical resistance patterns. Successful pitches should highlight underreported vectors, like aquaculture antibiotic runoff affecting coastal communities. Example: Her 2018 National Geographic piece on India’s poultry farms driving carbapenem-resistant infections.

2. Focus on Policy Solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance

She prioritizes actionable interventions over problem cataloging. Pitch stories featuring innovative stewardship programs, like Denmark’s antibiotic-free hog farms reducing hospital MRSA rates by 60% (cited in Big Chicken).

3. Highlight Cross-Disciplinary Pandemic Preparedness Research

Her WIRED coverage of COVID-19 emphasized wildlife virome surveillance and predictive modeling. Ideal pitches involve zoonotic spillover prevention, such as University of Florida’s bat antibody studies or USDA’s swine flu monitoring networks.

Awards and Achievements

Victor M. Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting (2023)

Recognized for her WIRED series on long COVID’s socioeconomic impacts, which combined patient advocacy with viral persistence research. The prize committee noted her “unparalleled ability to humanize complex immunology.”

AAAS-Kavli Gold Award (2019)

Awarded for The Plague Years, a New Republic investigation into antibiotic R&D market failures. The series exposed how patent cliffs discourage pharma investment in novel antimicrobials, cited in the 2022 PASTEUR Act.

“Resistance isn’t a future threat—it’s bankrupting families today through extended hospital stays and lost wages.”