Sebastián Martínez Valdivia
Sebastián Martínez Valdivia is a health reporter and documentary filmmaker who focuses on access to care in rural and immigrant communities. A native Spanish speaker and lifelong Missouri resident, Sebastián is interested in the often overlooked and under-covered world of immigrant life in the rural midwest. He has a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri and a master's degree in documentary journalism at the same institution. Aside from public health, his other interests include conservation, climate change and ecology.
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In many rural towns, local hospitals are community fixtures. When they close, the entire community feels the ripple effects. -
A federal emergency declaration that has allowed children to receive continuous Medicaid coverage throughout the pandemic could end soon, and health providers are worried.
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So-called cryptic lineages may hold the key to better understand how the virus that causes COVID mutates to evade our immune systems.
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Legal advocates are going to court to seek benefits for Missourians, who they say are being illegally shut out by a long and dysfunctional application process.
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Republicans in the Missouri House are looking to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would allow them to control Medicaid expansion funding and add work requirements to the program.
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Research found Medicaid expansion is linked to lower rates of people reoffending, and a key aspect appears to be mental health care. But just one-fifth of eligible Missourians have so far been enrolled in the program.
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The Board of Curators' decision not to require masks comes as the state experiences the worst COVID-19 infection rates it has seen since the start of the pandemic.
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Testing of wastewater from Jackson and Buchanan counties has revealed the presence of the highly transmissible omicron variant.
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Missouri experts say omicron's mutations are concerning, but make the COVID variant easier to detectThe first U.S. omicron case was identified Wednesday — about a week after its discovery in South Africa. While there are concerns about the variant’s transmissibility, the number of mutations it possesses make it easier to detect than other strains.
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Nearly 800 Missourians died from opioid overdoses in the first half of 2021. In Columbia, a rash of overdose deaths has pushed the community to change its attitude on harm reduction efforts.
