Sarah Fentem
Sarah Fentem reports on sickness and health as part of St. Louis Public Radio’s news team. She previously spent five years reporting for different NPR stations in Indiana, immersing herself deep, deep into an insurance policy beat from which she may never fully recover. A longitme NPR listener, she grew up hearing WQUB in Quincy, Illinois, which is now owned by STLPR. She lives in the Kingshighway Hills neighborhood, and in her spare time likes to watch old sitcoms, meticulously clean and organize her home and go on outdoor adventures with her fiancé Elliot. She has a cat, Lil Rock, and a dog, Ginger.
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The state and its partners at the University of Missouri are monitoring 112 sites to see if viral particles are increasing and if new COVID variants are emerging in the region's wastewater. -
Missouri has now banned abortion in the state, except in cases where a parent’s health is severely threatened. But the full effects of the state’s ban and its legal ramifications are still to be seen, and activists on both sides say their work is far from over.
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Abortion rights supporters in Missouri decried the court's decision to roll back decades of federal protections for people seeking abortions.
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More patients are reporting they're suffering from alpha gal syndrome, an allergy to red meat that's correlated with tick bites. Tick-related illnesses are on the rise nationwide as summers become hotter, wetter and more tick-friendly.
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Missouri environmental groups are decrying proposed state rules that would allow power plants to discharge contaminants like coal ash into groundwater through a general permit for multiple facilities. Power plants currently have individual, site-specific permits.
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Abortion-rights organizations in Missouri received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations since the release of a draft Supreme Court opinion that could overturn Roe v. Wade. Missouri is one of a dozen states with a law that would prohibit almost all abortions as soon as the 1973 decision is overturned.
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Billionaire philanthropist Mackenzie Scott has donated $9 million to Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, the largest one-time donation the organization has ever received.
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Republican state Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman’s proposed amendments would make it a crime to transport someone to receive an abortion, help pay for the procedure or instruct the person on ways to end a pregnancy.
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Local health programs will be crucial in managing the continued toll from the coronavirus, CDC director Rochelle Walensky told Washington University medical students on Thursday.
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Dozens of state and local jurisdictions had sued Johnson & Johnson and three other drug distributors, alleging they downplayed the addictive nature of opioid painkillers. Proceeds of the settlement will go directly to addiction treatment and prevention programs.
