Michaeleen Doucleff
Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD, is a correspondent for NPR's Science Desk. For nearly a decade, she has been reporting for the radio and the web for NPR's global health outlet, Goats and Soda. Doucleff focuses on disease outbreaks, cross-cultural parenting, and women and children's health.
In 2014, Doucleff was part of the team that earned a George Foster Peabody award for its coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. For the series, Doucleff reported on how the epidemic ravaged maternal health and how the virus spreads through the air. In 2019, Doucleff and Senior Producer Jane Greenhalgh produced a story about how Inuit parents teach children to control their anger. That story was the most popular one on NPR.org for the year; altogether readers have spent more than 16 years worth of time reading it.
In 2021, Doucleff published a book, called Hunt, Gather, Parent, stemming from her reporting at NPR. That book became a New York Times bestseller.
Before coming to NPR in 2012, Doucleff was an editor at the journal Cell, where she wrote about the science behind pop culture. Doucleff has a bachelor degree in biology from Caltech, a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Berkeley, California, and a master's degree in viticulture and enology from the University of California, Davis.
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Researchers now have the first data looking at how long that protection from a booster shot of the COVID vaccine will last and what the future of the vaccinations might be after the omicron surge.
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A look at the data that omicron is less severe. What does that mean for the future of SARS-CoV-2 — and the pandemic? -
There's growing evidence that omicron causes less severe disease than previous variants. Does that mean SARS-CoV-2 is evolving into a more mild virus? Will future surges be less deadly and disruptive?
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Researchers are looking at data from U.S. cases to determine if the variant causes milder disease. Even if the answer is yes, they say, rates of hospitalization could be high during the surge. -
In other countries, omicron has appeared to cause less severe illness than prior coronavirus variants. Now scientists have the first data from hospitals about what the U.S. faces with omicron.
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In many cultures around the world, parents don't need chore charts or allowances for kids to pitch in around the house. A new study shows how parents in these cultures teach children to be helpful.
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Vaccines still do a solid job at warding off hospitalization from omicron. So if you're young and healthy, why get a booster? Scientists explain how boosters help and the best timing to get one. -
Scientists know the omicron variant will cause many breakthrough infections. Given that omicron is now the dominant strain in the U.S., maybe it's time to rethink that booster shot.
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Researchers in South Africa have found that people infected with omicron, on average, are less likely to end up in the hospital. But the variant may act differently here in the U.S.
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A new study from the University of Hong Kong offers preliminary information that could explain why this new coronavirus variant may be more transmissible.
