Professional Affiliation

Washington Correspondent, The New York Times

Expert Bio

Sheryl Gay Stolberg is a Washington Correspondent for The New York Times covering health policy. In more than two decades at The Times, she has also been a Congressional Correspondent; a White House Correspondent covering the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama; and a national political features writer. Her current work focuses on the intersection of health policy and politics. Previously, at The Los Angeles Times, she shared in two Pulitzer Prizes won by that newspaper’s Metro staff.

Expertise

• Global Health
• Society and Culture
• U.S. Politics

Wilson Center Project

Public Health: A Political History

Project Summary

This book will trace a series of collisions between politics and public health and science in the United States from the early 20th century to the present, to answer the following questions: How have public health and government-funded science, which depend on the support of the nation’s political institutions, become the subject of partisan politics? Why is trust in scientific institutions on the decline, and why is the decline more pronounced among conservatives and especially Christian conservatives? How might these trends be reversed? Through the prism of conflicts over infectious disease, smoking and health, embryonic stem cell science, gun violence prevention research, obesity, vaccine skepticism and the coronavirus pandemic, this project will examine the effects of partisan politics on Americans’ health.

Major Publications

• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/us/politics/mississippi-childhood-vaccine-mandates.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/06/us/politics/abortion-obstetricians-maternity-care.html
• https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/22/us/politics/covid-misinformation-gab.html