Rebecca Gao
Rebecca Gao reports on how health is shaped by systems, environments and everyday decisions, drawing lines between clinical research, climate change, consumer habits and access to care. Her work spans Best Health magazine and a wide range of Canadian outlets, where she writes features, explainers and service pieces on health, sustainability and lifestyle. She also works as an editor and fact-checker, which gives her health coverage a strong emphasis on clarity and verified detail.
Environment, climate and public health risk
A key strand in Gao’s health reporting looks at how environmental change and climate-driven events translate into everyday risk. She has written about why ticks are spreading across Canada, linking ecological shifts and warming temperatures to changing patterns of vector-borne disease and practical advice for staying safe.[Input] For The Narwhal, she explains why southern Ontario wildfires are burning more often, combining climate science, land management and health concerns in an accessible narrative.
Her stories in this area focus on tangible impacts - how weather, landscape and wildlife affect exposure to harm - and on what individuals and communities can do to adapt.
Dermatology, beauty and commercial pressure
Gao regularly examines the intersection of health, beauty and commerce, with a particular focus on skin and dermatology. In The Local, she reports on cosmetic dermatology and privatization, showing how clinicians are pushed toward sales roles and how that shift changes the experience of seeking care. She writes about beauty and skin health for Best Health, covering products, routines and ingredients within a health and wellness frame rather than pure trend coverage.
Her portfolio also includes explainer pieces on topics like non-medical face masks, where she walks readers through evidence, safety and practical use, tying everyday consumer choices back to public health outcomes.
Life expectancy and urban health gaps
Gao’s health work often highlights structural and geographic inequalities, especially in cities. In a feature for The Local, she explores why a two-kilometre strip of Yonge Street has the highest life expectancy in one major city, weaving epidemiological data, housing patterns and local history into a portrait of how neighbourhood design shapes health. The piece illustrates her approach: she uses granular, place-based reporting to reveal disparities that are usually hidden in averages, and pairs statistics with lived experience to show how policy and infrastructure translate into different health trajectories.
This focus on urban health gaps runs through her broader coverage of systems and access, making inequality a recurring lens rather than a side topic.
Everyday health decisions and mental wellbeing
Beyond systems and environment, Gao writes extensively about personal health decisions, with particular attention to mental health and reproductive care.
Her portfolio includes a long-form feature on the history of the birth control pill in Canada, examining medical, psychological and sexual side effects and why improvements have lagged. She has also written service journalism on questions like whether online therapy is right for a given person, distilling expert insight into clear, actionable guidance. Across these pieces, she treats mental health, contraception and preventive care as practical issues that people navigate in their daily lives, grounding advice in reporting rather than opinion.
Health reporting across Canadian outlets
Gao’s health coverage appears in Best Health, The Local, The Narwhal, Canadian Healthcare Network, Canadian Business, Toronto Life and other national and regional publications.
She has worked as an editor at Best Health magazine, and she continues to contribute health and wellness stories as a freelance writer. Her bylines also extend into food, culture, tech and business, and she often brings those perspectives into her health reporting - for example, looking at how technology and markets influence care delivery or patient experience.
Across outlets, she favours deeply reported features and clear explainers over quick takes, and her work consistently reflects a blend of system-level analysis, environmental context and practical guidance for everyday health decisions.
4 more health journalists.
Alanna Smith
Alanna Smith is a national health reporter whose work links health policy and politics to real access to care, with a constant focus on health equity, infectious disease and the toxic drug crisis. She reports for The Globe and Mail on infectious diseases, hospitals and long-term care, mental health, drug policy and the pressures on health systems in Western Canada. Her stories connect big-picture decisions to patients, families, front-line workers and volunteers, showing how funding, privatization and federal standards shape public care. She has covered trauma care inequities, proposed public‑private models in Alberta, drug toxicity and overdose policy, respiratory virus surges, measles elimination, gene‑editing advances and gender‑affirming health care laws. Her work combines narrative reporting, data, legal and policy analysis, and has been recognized by national journalism and press freedom organizations.
Allan Levine
Allan Levine is a historian and author whose journalism uses the past to explain present-day issues. He writes for the Winnipeg Free Press, including the Now & Then column, which examines current events through history. His subjects include public health, disease, medical treatment, health systems, politics, social conflict, strikes, wars, antisemitism and Canadian public life. His polio reporting traces Manitoba epidemics, hospital pressures, treatment, mortality and the arrival of vaccines through archival data and medical history. He also writes about the Winnipeg General Strike and Jewish communities, including discrimination, rights and security. His work draws on books about Canadian political leaders, Jewish history and the wartime economy, including The Dollar A Year Men. He writes long-form, analytical pieces that combine dates, statistics, policy decisions and narrative storytelling to connect people and institutions with broader historical change.
Angela Amato
Angela Amato is a digital news producer with CTV News, and her coverage is distinct for linking health research and public safety concerns to legal and policy decisions that shape daily life. She reports on health, justice, politics, business, arts and culture, crime and public-interest stories. Her health work covers academic and clinical research, including studies on vaping and lung blood flow, exercise tolerance and early heart dysfunction in young adults. She also reports on motorcycle gang arrests, homicide and death investigations, Indigenous justice stories, wildfire evacuations, ambulance contracts, property taxes, labour negotiations and political advocacy rules. She explains complex findings in plain language and stays close to documents, data and expert sources. Her background includes investigative and daily newsrooms, and she has earned nominations for national journalism awards.
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.