Local Reporting and New York Epidemiologist Will Power Healthbeat New York’s Newsletter
NEW YORK – Healthbeat, a new nonprofit newsroom covering public health, and the popular and influential newsletter Your Local Epidemiologist launched an ongoing editorial partnership in New York this week. The organizations will collaborate to co-produce and distribute to New Yorkers the analysis and expertise of epidemiologist Dr. Marisa Donnelly in Healthbeat’s New York newsletter.
Dr. Donnelly will combine her decade of experience in public health with Healthbeat’s community-first reporting and the rigorous, accessible approach that has made Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) an essential resource to more than 260,000 people around the world.
YLE founder and CEO Dr. Katelyn Jetelina announced the partnership to her audience on Monday. That announcement can be read here. Dr. Donnelly’s first report was published on Healthbeat New York’s newsletter yesterday, you can read it here.
Healthbeat’s partnership with YLE is its first new initiative since launching this summer. The newsroom was founded as a collaboration between Civic News Company – which also operates Chalkbeat covering education in 8 communities and Votebeat covering voting administration in 5 states – and KFF Health News, which provides Healthbeat’s national coverage. In its local efforts, Healthbeat offers reporting in, with, and for communities in New York City and Atlanta.
“In the wake of the COVID pandemic, it’s never been more important to make evidence-based information and reporting on public health as widely available as possible,” said Elizabeth Green, founder and CEO of Civic News Company. “Partnering with Katelyn Jetelina and the YLE team to add Dr. Donnelly’s analysis to Healthbeat New York’s essential ongoing reporting is an opportunity for us to bring science and journalism closer together, and to serve our communities.”
Dr. Donnelly will provide New Yorkers with reports every week on what’s happening in that community, from infection threats to the latest intelligence on vaccines. The Healthbeat and YLE teams see her reporting as a community health forecast.
“As you might guess from our name, I’ve thought for a long time about the opportunity to expand the work of Your Local Epidemiologist to local communities,” said Jetelina. “Elizabeth and Civic News Company share a vision and urgency so many of us feel to strengthen public understanding of complex, high-stakes public health decisions and risks.”
Sign up for the Healthbeat/ YLE New York newsletter here. Find the YLE New York reports at Healthbeat New York. Sign up here for YLE’s national newsletter.
About Healthbeat
Healthbeat is a nonprofit newsroom reporting on public health from Civic News Company and KFF Health News. Healthbeat launched in summer 2024 in New York and Atlanta, with a third location planned for 2025. Civic News is also the publisher of Chalkbeat and Votebeat, providing essential coverage of schools and elections across America. All of its journalism is available for republication under a Creative Commons license.
About Your Local Epidemiologist
Your Local Epidemiologist is a newsletter founded by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and data scientist who serves as a consultant to organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She started the newsletter in March 2020 to update her students, faculty and staff at the University of Texas School of Public Health on developments around the Covid-19 pandemic. It has since grown to a large international audience, translating many public health topics for everyday use.