Matthew Perrone
Matthew Perrone is a health writer at The Associated Press who focuses on the intersection of medicine, money and health policy. His coverage tracks how regulators, companies and politicians shape access to drugs, devices and medical care, with a consistent emphasis on the real-world consequences for patients. Over more than a decade on the health beat, he has built a portfolio that blends regulatory reporting, investigative work and clear explanatory pieces on complex medical issues.
Regulation, the FDA and political battles over health care
Perrone’s core reporting lane is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the broader machinery of health regulation. He covers internal FDA decision-making around tobacco and nicotine products, including guidance that allows more e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches onto the market and catches senior officials off guard. His stories follow how enforcement “discretion” and shifting priorities can open or close the door to new nicotine products, youth-targeted marketing and flavored vapes.
He reports closely on high-profile FDA leadership and confirmation fights, such as coverage of a Trump-era nominee pressed by senators on vaccines, the abortion pill and other contested medical products.
In those pieces he links hearing room exchanges to long-running policy efforts to reshape childhood immunization schedules and reinterpret the safety record of established vaccines. Perrone also writes about testosterone prescribing policy, tracing how federal officials weigh convenience for patients against evidence on cardiovascular and other risks.
His work often sits at the point where science meets politics and industry lobbying. Stories on cancer blood tests, obesity drugs and other emerging technologies show him following advisory panel votes, data presented to regulators and the questions experts want every patient and doctor to ask before embracing new tools.
He presents these regulatory debates in plain language while keeping the focus on who gains and who bears the risks when rules change.
Drug safety, new tests and medical innovation
Beyond the policy process, Perrone reports on the safety and effectiveness of new drugs and diagnostics as they move into clinical use.
He has covered a first-of-its-kind blood test from Grail designed to detect signs of multiple cancers in apparently healthy people, detailing how an FDA advisory panel weighed its promise against concerns over false reassurance, false alarms and limited accuracy in early-stage disease. His coverage explains how sensitivity, specificity and trial design translate into everyday choices about screening and insurance coverage.
Perrone’s work also follows shifts in the market for weight loss drugs and other medications, including federal warnings to online services that sell unofficial versions of blockbuster obesity treatments. He examines how companies advertise these products, the gaps between marketing claims and regulatory approvals, and the risks when patients obtain powerful medicines outside traditional medical channels.
His reporting shows particular interest in how business models and advertising strategies influence prescribing practices.
Across these stories, he writes in a format that mixes news from regulators with practical context: what a new approval means, what limitations remain, and what questions patients and clinicians should ask before relying on new therapies or tests.
Food safety, outbreaks and inspection gaps
Perrone regularly covers foodborne illness and the systems meant to prevent it. His reporting on a massive cyclospora outbreak tied to iceberg lettuce follows the FDA’s investigation from initial suspicions through field inspections at a Mexican farm and a U.S. processing facility.
He tracks how inspectors identified the parasite in wastewater and drainage ditches, and how those findings connect to an outbreak that caused thousands of cases of diarrhea and related illnesses.
In companion coverage, he links the cyclospora outbreak to years of declining FDA foreign inspections, highlighting how fewer on-the-ground checks can leave imported produce risks undetected. These pieces combine detailed accounts of inspection findings, test results and agency statements with broader questions about whether current oversight keeps pace with globalized food supply chains.
His food safety reporting is driven by data points - case counts, inspection numbers, contamination locations - and he uses them to show where regulatory systems break down and what that means for public health.
Telehealth, data privacy and emerging health threats
Perrone extends his regulatory focus into digital health, covering telehealth companies that expose customer medical data or lock users into subscriptions that are hard to cancel. He reports on investigations and lawsuits that accuse firms of deceptive and unethical practices, explaining how business decisions about data sharing, billing and remote prescribing collide with consumer protection and medical ethics. His stories on services such as Hims & Hers trace the line between aggressive growth strategies and regulatory pushback.
He also covers emerging and lesser-known health threats in accessible explanatory formats. His piece on alpha-gal syndrome, a life-threatening meat allergy triggered by tick bites, walks readers through symptoms, diagnosis, lifestyle impact and the first drug approved to reduce severe reactions.
In coverage of monkeypox treatment, he reports on warnings that overuse of the antiviral Tpoxx could drive resistance, focusing on the tension between the urgency to treat patients and the need to preserve drug effectiveness.
These stories show Perrone’s tendency to use regulatory and scientific developments as entry points into human-facing explanations of risk: how new pathogens, allergies and therapies change what patients can safely eat, which drugs they can rely on and how closely they must watch their own health data.
Across his body of work, Perrone maintains a consistent lens: health care as a system shaped by regulators, corporations and political actors, with patients caught in the middle. His reporting is heavily sourced from federal agencies, court proceedings, advisory panels and investigative findings, and his stories aim to translate those institutional dynamics into clear accounts of what is happening and why it matters.
His work has received recognition from journalism and health reporting organizations, reflecting a long-term commitment to scrutinizing the business and policy forces behind medicine.
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.