This week, Meedan welcomes medical doctor and award-winning journalist, Dr. Seema Yasmin to our COVID-19 team.
Her role will include sharing highlights from Meedan’s COVID-19 Expert Database, a new tool supported by major tech funders and foundations, which engages public health experts to provide newsworthy insights into complex pandemic science.
You’ll be able to find Dr. Yasmin’s highlights in our weekly newsletter, The Checklist, and on even more platforms soon. Sign up for the Checklist. To learn more about the COVID-19 Expert Database or to see how your newsroom or fact-checking organization can get involved, email health@meedan.com.
"Journalists are under immense pressure to report quickly, frequently, and accurately, during the pandemic," said Dr. Yasmin. "That requires sifting through dozens of new studies published each day, analyzing complex methodology, and translating technical language into content for broad audiences — in addition to protecting the public from false narratives and dangerous myths spread by some politicians and bad actors. The Expert Database supports reporters and fact-checkers, helping them verify information so they can publish the kind of nuanced, accurate, and up-to-date content that the public demands during the global health crisis of our generation."
Each week, Dr. Yasmin will curate key selections from the COVID-19 Expert Database and provide an added layer of context onto those pieces of information. This will help fact-checkers and journalists who use the COVID-19 Expert Database understand the most important content from around the world.
Dr. Yasmin is a physician-journalist who served as an officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before training as a journalist and reporting on the front lines of epidemics such as of Ebola, Zika, gun violence, and more. She trained in journalism at the University of Toronto and in medicine at the University of Cambridge.
Yasmin was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in breaking news in 2017 with a team from The Dallas Morning News and received an Emmy Award for her reporting on neglected diseases. She has received two grants from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and in 2017 she was selected as a John S. Knight Fellow in Journalism at Stanford University where she investigated the spread of health misinformation and disinformation during epidemics.
We are excited to work with Dr. Yasmin on amplifying these highlights to our audience. Stay tuned for more updates on the COVID-19 Expert Database soon, including more platforms for broadcasting highlights and an introduction to our entire team of experts.
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Megan runs Meedan’s Health Desk initiative as Senior Program Manager. She has worked for news outlets in Canada and the US, and holds a Peabody Award for her work on Netflix’s Patriot Act series. She has a Master of Science from the Columbia Journalism School.
