Interdisciplinary Seminar in Health Policy: Robert Bazell (NBC News)
Robert Bazell, Adjunct Professor, Yale University, Former Chief Science and Health Corresponsdent, NBC News
Cancer Drugs: Astounding prices, Widespread shortages, and Questionable efficacy – not ignoring the media’s role
Robert Bazell graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1967 with a B.A. in biochemistry. He studied biology at the University of Sussex before returning to Berkeley to complete his doctoral degree in immunology. Bazell pursued his dual interest in journalism and science by joining Science magazine in 1971 and writing for its News and Comment section. A year later, he left the publication to become a reporter for the New York Post. In 1976, he began his long career in broadcast journalism by joining WNBC in New York as a reporter before moving to NBC News. At NBC, Bazell was one of the first network news correspondents to report on the emerging AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, and his extensive coverage of the topic earned him the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award and the Maggie Award from Planned Parenthood. Also in 1986, he was also a reporter and chief space correspondent during the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster when he reported about the explosion of the Space Shuttle on the January 28, 1986 episode of NBC Nightly News. In 1998, Bazell wrote and published “HER-2: The Making of Herceptin, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer,” which chronicled the creation of Herceptin, a drug used to treat breast cancer; the book received a positive review from the New York Times. The 2008 Lifetime film Living Proof, about a doctor who devotes his life’s work to finding a cure for breast cancer, is based on the book. Bazell has won five Emmys and in 1993 was honored with the George Foster Peabody Award for exemplifying “the best reporting on science and medicine. He was also presented the Hope Funds Award in Advocacy in 2008. This fall, Bazell left NBC to join us here at Yale as an adjunct professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. Bazell and his wife, Margot Weinshel, reside in New York.
The seminar is co-hosted by ISPS Health at Yale and Yale Law School. Lunch will be served.