Talia Ricci
Talia Ricci reports on health and social issues for CBC News, focusing on how policies, systems and services shape the care people receive and the lives they lead. Her work consistently centres patients, families and frontline providers, using individual stories to illuminate gaps, pressures and improvements across public health and the broader health system. She tells these stories across television, radio and digital platforms, with a strong human‑interest lens and an emphasis on social justice and accountability.
Health systems under pressure
Ricci’s coverage frequently takes audiences inside hospitals and emergency departments to show how rising demand and limited capacity affect care.
She has reported from emergency rooms where demand is roughly double what facilities were designed to handle, documenting crowding, wait times and the strain on staff. Her stories examine how hospitals use partnerships and redesigned patient flows to ease emergency department volumes and redirect people to more appropriate services.
She also reports on initiatives that tap frontline staff for ideas to improve care with technology, including artificial intelligence, highlighting efforts to free up more time for direct patient care. Across these pieces, she connects operational decisions and innovation back to the experience of people seeking help in moments of urgency.
Public health, patients and accountability
A defining strand of Ricci’s work is public health reporting built around the experiences of individuals and families.
In stories on West Nile virus, she follows Ontario families whose lives were changed by infection, using their accounts to underscore official warnings about mosquito season and the importance of protection and awareness. Her reporting on misdiagnosed colon cancer similarly starts with one patient’s experience and moves outward to screening capacity, early detection and system responsiveness.
In coverage of a Toronto gynecologist facing infection‑risk concerns, she speaks with a patient who filed a formal complaint years earlier, drawing a line between personal harm, regulatory processes and public notification. Whether the subject is infectious disease or medical oversight, she pairs human testimony with clear explanations of risk, responsibility and what changes are being called for.
Mental health access and crisis response
Ricci reports extensively on mental health supports, paying close attention to how quickly and easily people can access care. She has covered the national 988 suicide prevention line, detailing call volumes, how the service is operating and what it means for people in crisis who need someone to answer when they reach out. Her work also profiles clinics designed to bring psychiatric care closer to new mothers, documenting how shortened wait times and integrated services can change postpartum mental health outcomes. In these stories she speaks with physicians and new parents, balancing clinical perspective with lived experience to show both the promise and the remaining gaps in mental health provision. The through‑line is practical: who can get help, how fast they can get it, and what support looks like in real settings.
Social justice and everyday policy impacts
Beyond strictly clinical topics, Ricci covers how policies and technologies shape daily life, often through a social justice frame. Her reporting on calls for more transparency in home insurance rates focuses on advocates and families confronting opaque pricing and unexpected costs, linking consumer experience to regulatory and industry practices.
In coverage of venues banning cameras and smart glasses from dance floors, she explores questions of privacy, consent and safety in nightlife and community spaces.
Across her portfolio she gravitates toward offbeat human‑interest stories that expose inequities, whether in housing, digital culture or access to services. This broader range complements her health reporting, adding context on how people’s environments and policies around them interact with their well‑being.
Throughout her work for CBC News, Ricci uses interviews, on‑the‑ground reporting and feature storytelling to connect system‑level decisions with the people who live with their consequences. The consistent emphasis is on clear, accessible coverage that shows what is changing, what is not, and how those realities play out for patients, families and communities.
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.