I'm a health reporter who writes about infectious diseases, stem cells, neuroscience and consumer health topics like fitness and nutrition. I've been on the health beat since 2006 (minus a nine-month stint covering Mayor Gavin Newsom). Before joining The Chronicle, I worked at newspapers all over the California Bay Area and covered a little of everything, including business and technology, city government, and education. I was part of a team that won a Polk Award for regional reporting in 2005, for a series of stories on outsourcing jobs from Santa Rosa to Penang, Malaysia. I started my journalism career at the Daily Californian student newspaper and many years later still call Berkeley home.

Articles

How I reported a page-one story on a notoriously discredited anti-vaxxer

SF Chronicle health reporter Erin Allday really didn't want to cover an appearance by the discredited scientist Andrew Wakefield, but her editors sent her anyway. Here she shares how she approached the assignment, dodged the topic's potential pitfalls, and ended up with a well-received A1 story.