The COVID-19 vaccine is a “stunning accomplishment in human history that has affected everyone:” Q&A with Insider’s Senior Healthcare Reporter Andrew Dunn
To help our readers get to know the people that power our newsroom, we host live Twitter conversations called #TheInsideStory on our @InsiderInc account with reporters and editors from our Business, Life, and News sections.
We caught up with Andrew Dunn, senior healthcare reporter at Insider, who covers the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. During our conversation, he spoke about his experience reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic, the most common question he gets asked about healthcare & his trip to the Moderna headquarters. Be sure to follow Andrew on Twitter @AndrewE_Dunn and check out his most recent Business Insider articles. To learn more about Andrew, read Insider’s behind the scenes feature on him.
Thanks for joining us today, Andrew! Let’s kick off this chat with you describing your role at Insider.
Happy to join! I cover the drug industry for Insider alongside Allison DeAngelis as part of the business of healthcare team.
Since joining in January 2020, I started writing within a couple days about COVID vaccines and treatments. That's still a huge focus of mine today.
We're happy to have you on the team! What were you doing before joining the team at Insider? Tell us a bit about your background.
Before Insider, I was at BioPharma Dive. That's where I really learned how to cover the industry. They have an awesome team (shout out to Ned Pagliarulo, Jacob Bell, Jon Gardner and the rest of the crew) It was my first time writing about biotech — I've been hooked since.
When and why did you first become interested in reporting on the healthcare industry?
I basically knew nothing about healthcare before starting at BioPharma Dive. I had experience in journalism, but not in covering healthcare. It can be an arcane industry to cover, but I enjoyed the challenge of learning both the business and science sides.
How has your journalistic approach evolved while covering the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine rollout?
My approach to reporting really didn't change in covering the pandemic, but it intensified the focus on the basics:
Know the science, read the medical journals
Find the best experts, often not the loudest or most accessible voices
Have skepticism, not cynicism
On the last point, that was a real focus of mine. It's a pandemic. It's easy to get quite down on the state of the world. Yet it's been exhilarating to cover the COVID-19 vaccine story, really a stunning accomplishment in human history that affected everyone.
You recently wrote about visiting the Moderna headquarters. How did that story come about and what was that experience like?
I like seeing stuff in person whenever possible. (Harder to do during a pandemic!) That was the goal with the Moderna trips — both in March 2020 and June 2021. I wanted to see firsthand how this company is responding to COVID and transforming through its response.
I was stunned to see how much Moderna's Norwood, MA facility changed. Instead of one building, as it was in March 2020, it's a sprawling campus with so many research projects going on. I wanted to give readers a sense of what's next for this company now worth over $100 billion.
How do you decide on your next story? Your recent story on Regeneron’s top scientist talking about developing gene-editing medicines that could cure diseases was fascinating.
The COVID vaccines are based on mRNA, but so many people have told me we're just scratching the surface of genetics medicines — mRNA, gene editing, gene therapy, RNAi.
I wanted to hear how an industry leader like Yancopoulos views this space & what Regeneron is working on.
What is the most common question you get from family and friends who know that you report on the coronavirus & cover the healthcare industry?
It's changed with the seasons! In spring 2020: Does hydroxychloroquine work? By the winter, I got a lot of questions if one vaccine is "best." And right now, it's mainly about what to do with booster shots.
Which of your Insider stories are you the most proud of and why?
This spring, I dove deep into GlaxoSmithKline. Up to this year, it was the world's largest vaccine manufacturer by sales. And yet it didn't even attempt to develop its own COVID shot. I didn't see that story elsewhere and was glad to be able to cover it.
Incredible! What do you hope readers take away from your reporting? #TheInsideStory
I hope our readers can learn something and get a sense of why it's important from my writing.
COVID vaccines have made it pretty obvious why the drug industry matters. But future treatments against other diseases will change people's lives. And I hope to cover that future.
What do you love most about working at Insider Inc.?
Hands down, it's the people I work with everyday. The editors and fellow reporters in this newsroom are amazing. And it's been so fun to watch Insider grow in real time over the past 2 years.