Sarah Knapton
Sarah Knapton is the science editor at The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph, covering health and medical stories through the lens of scientific evidence and its real-world consequences. Her coverage centres on how new research, clinical practice and policy decisions affect patients, families and frontline staff, with recurring focus on Covid-19, public health risks and the NHS. She blends case-based reporting with data-driven analysis, using individual stories to anchor complex debates about safety, risk and scientific uncertainty.
Covid, vaccines and mortality
Knapton’s Covid reporting combines personal narratives with close attention to medical and legal detail, as in coverage of an inquest into the death of a grandmother shortly after a Covid booster where she follows how coroners examine possible links between vaccination and mortality. She has also reported on mortality statistics, including work showing that nearly 40 per cent of recent Covid victims died primarily from underlying conditions rather than the virus itself, highlighting the role of comorbidities in pandemic outcomes. In these pieces she brings together clinical language, statistical framing and human stories to show how Covid interacts with existing illness and how health systems interpret responsibility and causation.
Public health risks and contested science
Knapton repeatedly picks up research-driven stories about health risks, especially where new evidence challenges everyday assumptions about safety. In an article on e-cigarettes headlined “E-cigarettes are no safer than smoking tobacco, scientists warn”, she reported scientists’ concerns about the harms of vaping compared with conventional smoking, framing the story around the claim that switching to e-cigarettes does not remove risk. The piece prompted detailed pushback from public health advocates and commentators, showing that she is willing to run assertive interpretations of emerging evidence and then sit in the ensuing debate. Her reporting on air pollution and its health impacts has likewise drawn response from academic institutions after she questioned research produced by a major university, underlining a taste for stories where scientific findings carry sharp policy implications. Across this strand of her work she gravitates to clear, headline-ready conclusions from complex studies and is comfortable writing in a tone that invites challenge from other experts.
NHS, disability and frontline medicine
Knapton also writes human-centred pieces that connect scientific milestones to the realities of clinical work. In a profile of the first disabled astronaut, she draws on his experience working in the NHS to show how demanding healthcare roles can build resilience and readiness for space missions, linking occupational stress to performance in extreme environments. The article uses one career to illuminate pressures inside medicine, weaving biography with health-system context and presenting the NHS as both a workplace and a crucible for scientific and personal achievement. This approach gives her health coverage a strong narrative spine while keeping the focus on practice and outcomes rather than opinion.
Broad science remit anchored in health
As science editor, Knapton works across disciplines but consistently brings health and human impact to the foreground. Her remit ranges from Covid and public health to space, disability and environmental science, reflecting a beat that sits at the intersection of medicine, policy and broader scientific research. She has covered all areas of science since 2013, yet her standout pieces tend to revolve around what new findings mean for patients, clinicians and regulators rather than for abstract theory. Across these stories she favours accessible language, direct cause-and-effect framing and concrete examples, making complex research legible to a general audience while keeping clinical detail and policy stakes in view.
4 more health journalists.
Alex Storey
Alex Storey is a journalist at LBC whose work is driven by specific cases that test professional conduct and accountability in health and the public sector. He covers health as his main beat, focusing on the point where individual decisions by clinicians or officials meet public trust in institutions. His reporting is incident-first and case-led, using concrete episodes to show how rules, ethics and policy work in real life. Recent pieces include a disciplinary case where a nurse was struck off after linking a patient’s cancer to Covid jabs, and coverage of civil servants being “paid to play Grand Theft Auto” as “lived experience” training. Across these stories, he examines how professionals, regulators and officials explain their decisions, and what that reveals about trust, responsibility and the standards expected of people in positions of authority.
Alexandra Thompson
Alexandra Thompson is an assistant news editor focused on health who treats health claims as hypotheses to be tested rather than messages to be repeated. She works at New Scientist, combining editing with frontline reporting on ageing brains, cognitive health, chronic illness, contested treatments and infectious disease. Her beat centres on how neuroscience and psychology intersect with everyday health choices and on how scientific findings translate into real-world outcomes for people living with illness. She examines lifestyle advice, rehabilitation programmes and outbreak guidance against current evidence, clarifying risk without overstating it and giving space to controversy without sensationalising it. Alongside written news she appears in audio and video formats, bringing the same clear, news-driven approach to live discussions and helping shape the daily health agenda while keeping a tight focus on evidence and impact.
Alice Wilkinson
Alice Wilkinson investigates how everyday habits, products and routines shape sleep and long-term wellbeing, using test-driven health features to separate hype from real benefit. She holds a senior role on The Telegraph’s health features team, writing and shaping consumer-focused coverage that blends personal trial with clear expert evidence. Her core beat is sleep as a practical, solvable part of daily life, from detailed comparisons of magnesium supplements to service pieces on how sleeping position affects health over time. She treats supplements as a crowded, over-claimed market that demands careful testing and clear-eyed reporting. Alongside long-form features she writes weekly health desk dispatches on sleep, stress and concentration. Across her work she combines substantial self-testing, specialist insight and plain, unfussy prose to give readers measurable, realistic changes they can make.
Ally Head
Ally Head connects performance-focused fitness reporting with women’s health, sustainability and relationships, using her own endurance training and health history to stress-test trends against expert guidance. She is Senior Health, Sustainability and Relationships Editor at Marie Claire UK, where she shapes the health agenda across training, wellbeing and conscious living and writes and commissions news, topical features and SEO-led long-form pieces. A ten-time marathoner and Boston-qualifying runner, she focuses on structured, realistic training plans, strength and conditioning for women who run, and performance longevity. Her women’s health work centres on hormones, chronic conditions and fact versus fiction wellness claims. She also covers sustainability as conscious living and relationships, mental resilience and lifestyle features, favouring plain language, lived experience, specialist commentary and clear, repeatable routines. She has previously produced similar content for Women’s Health, Stylist, Glamour and Grazia.