Eilís O'Neill
Reporter
About
Eilís is a reporter covering health. She focuses on health inequities, substance use and addiction, infectious diseases, mental health, and reproductive and maternal health.
Eilís came to KUOW in 2016. Before that, she worked as a freelance reporter, first in South America, and then in New York City. Her work has aired on NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered, APM’s Marketplace, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, and other programs.
Eilís' work as part of a team covering Covid-19 outbreaks and vaccine hesitation in Washington won a regional Murrow award, as did a series about children who lost parents to Covid-19. Her series about the opioid crisis on the Olympic Peninsula won several regional Society for Professional Journalists awards as well as a national Public Media Journalists Association award.
Eilís grew up in Seattle and was a high school intern at KUOW, in the program that later became RadioActive. She has a Master's in Science, Health, and Environment Reporting from Columbia University. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two children.
Location: Seattle
Languages: English, Spanish
Pronouns: she/her
Stories
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The key to racial diversity in the outdoors: 'Making sure that people feel safe'
Bird-watcher Joey Manson has made it his mission to make sure everyone — especially people of color — feels safe outdoors in Seattle.
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The cost of a strawberry: Overtime battle for Washington's farm workers
Strawberry season doesn’t mean strawberry shortcake or strawberry jam for Ana. It means long days bent nearly double to snap ripe strawberries from where they grow, near the ground. “You have to lean over a lot to pick strawberries,” she said. “So of course everything hurts: your legs, your back--everything.”
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College during Covid-19: Uncertainty troubles students and schools
With some American universities uncertain what classes will look like this fall, college students are wrestling with whether to enroll — or try to defer till they can be sure to have a full college experience.
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She's Canadian. He's American. The border closed right before they were supposed to get married
Since March 21, the US/Canada border has been closed for all non-essential travel, and it’s going to stay closed till at least June 21. Visiting family members, and attending one’s own wedding, are not considered essential.
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Face masks are a communication barrier for deaf people: 'I almost just want to stay home'
People who are deaf or hard of hearing are having a difficult time during this pandemic. That’s because they can’t see the lips or facial expressions of people wearing face masks.
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‘Is it going to happen?': Seattle chef struggles to get unemployment, faces homelessness
Last week, Gary Barbo realized he had only two dollars and sixty-two cents left in his bank account. “It actually ended up getting to be pretty dark for me,” he said. “It was very overwhelming.”
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Pop-up blood donation site comes to T-Mobile Park
Seattle’s T-Mobile Park may not be hosting baseball games any time soon, but starting today, it will be a place where people can go to donate blood. Bloodworks Northwest will be hosting a pop-up blood donation site at T-Mobile Park’s Ellis Pavilion for at least the next three weeks.
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Parks and sidewalks too crowded? Maybe pedestrians should get space on some streets
People are getting tired of being stuck inside. But where should they go? One Seattle non-profit says the city should open up more green space so that people can have room to safely be outside.
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Food banks expecting a surge in new customers during Covid-19
Food banks are struggling to stock their pantries as the number of people experiencing food insecurity grows
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Model suggesting Washington's hospitals could withstand a COVID-19 surge may be too optimistic, experts say
A new model suggesting that Washington state's hospitals could weather the worst of the coronavirus crisis has received widespread attention. But experts caution that the model, created by the University of Washington's Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, only looks at the best-case scenario: what could happen if social distancing measures successfully suppress the transmission of the coronavirus.