When The Dallas Morning News broke the story on Saturday that a nurse quarantined in a New Jersey hospital after caring for Ebola patients in West Africa was asymptomatic and had tested negative for the disease—and that she accused authorities of an overreaction that made her feel like a “criminal”—the journalist behind the news was no ordinary reporter. And the story didn’t get to readers in an ordinary way.
Seema Yasmin is an epidemiologist who’s worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She now holds an unusual joint position as a professor in practice at the University of Texas–Dallas and a staff writer for the Morning News.
Her CDC connections won the Morning News the exclusive. Yasmin and the nurse, Kaci Hickox, had worked together there and shared a network of friends, who alerted the reporter when the nurse was quarantined. The two began to text. Hickox shared her frustration at the misinformation already surfacing—particular from New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who had described her as “obviously ill.” Christie based his comments on reports that Hickox had a fever, information the nurse says came from an incorrect temperature reading.
“Why would they worry my family like that?” Yasmin recalls Hickox saying. She added: “Once we were texting, she said she really wanted her voice to be heard. She didn’t want her name out there until she had written something herself.”
Hospital staff in New Jersey had withheld nearly all of Hickox’s possessions, including her laptop, treating them as potential biohazards. So Hickox composed the story on her phone, and sent it to Yasmin.*
“I don’t know if it was predictive text but there were lots of typos—Sierra Leone spelled in many different ways,” Yasmin says. “My job was just trying to edit the text so it read properly.”
The story, published by the Morning News as a first-person account by Hickox, went live at noon Saturday. It generated more than 500,000 unique visitors and about 600,000 page views between midday Saturday and Sunday evening, and almost immediately got the attention of the national media. The top story on The New York Times’ website Saturday night was mostly based on Hickox’ Morning News article.
“It was a timely, significant point of view that went against the self-satisfaction New York seemed to have in how it was handling the Ebola crisis,” said Morning News editor Bob Mong.
The use of the first person was not meant as an implicit endorsement of Hickox’s criticisms, Mong says. “The personal relationship offered a unique opportunity to get that story out and tell it safely from the nurse’s point of view.” The Morning News also assigned reporters to cover the story in a straight news style.
Events, though, seem to have vindicated Hickox’ position. She was discharged today, and allowed to travel home to Maine, though Christie has said the state’s policy on quarantines is unchanged.
From a reporting perspective, there wasn’t much to Hickox’ first-person story—but it was only possible because of Yasmin’s Morning News connection, and it’s another example of how her hiring couldn’t have been more timely. A former freelancer for the paper through its collaboration with the University of Toronto’s Fellowship in Global Journalism, she started her dual appointment in June, just three months before Liberian Thomas Eric Duncan arrived in Dallas and became the first person diagnosed with Ebola in this country. She became part of a diverse team—including not just health journalists but also politics and education reporters—who have been churning out six or seven stories a day. Yasmin’s contributions have included hard news; opinion pieces; reader Q&As on the Morning News site, on Twitter, and in joint segments with local affiliate NBC 5 DFW; and sitting for an FAQ-style interview with a Dallas Morning News colleague. She has also helped her colleagues with research and interviews.
Yasmin is one of three subject-matter experts that the paper employs through partnerships with local universities. The others are art critic Richard Brettell and architecture critic Mark Lamster.
While the subject matter expertise and connections might seem an obvious asset, not everyone in health journalism is convinced that physicians bring something special to the table. “I could name a lot of healthcare journalists that can evaluate evidence better than some physicians,” says Gary Schwitzer, publisher of HealthNewsReview.org and adjunct associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. He also says when physicians become journalists, potential conflicts of interest often arise.
Covering Ebola at The Dallas Morning News, Yasmin must frequently discuss or report on the CDC, which once employed her—although other staffers report on the agency more than she does. The paper discloses her former affiliation, as well as her current employment with the University of Texas-Dallas, in her bylines.
Mong says he’s confident Yasmin still asks the CDC the necessary, difficult questions, and evaluates its performance objectively. He’s aware of the possibility of conflicts with the University of Texas, too. Yasmin says she and her editors are careful to ensure their approach is fair.
“In journalism, you’re always mindful of ethics,” she says. “You want to be even more mindful in a situation like this.”
* Correction: This sentence incorrectly stated the program Hickox used to compose and send the actual story draft to Yasmin. The headline has also been revised.
Tamar Wilner is a Dallas-based freelance journalist and researcher who writes about misinformation, fact-checking, science communication, and all things media. She tweets at @tamarwilner.