Emily Kopp

Background

About Emily Kopp

Emily Kopp is a health care reporter covering the coronavirus and Capitol Hill. Emily leads coverage of all things vaccine distribution and development. She has also covered the personal protective equipment shortage, workplace outbreaks and therapeutics. She has broken stories at critical points of the pandemic, including the first story about CDC recommending that nurses wear bandanas, the first story about corporations lobbying for no liability when employees get sick, and the first story about states taking the unprecedented step of doing independent non-FDA reviews of COVID-19 vaccines. Before covering the pandemic, she covered cannabis legislation on the state and federal levels. When Emily started at CQ Roll Call, she woke up at 6 a.m. every morning to cover news stories that had broken overnight. In addition to reporting on the news leading the day, she broke investigative stories about a congressman’s ties to a white supremeacist and a ban on DREAMERs working in congressional offices. At Kaiser Health News, Emily was the lead reporter on a year-long investigation into the connection between patient advocacy organizations and the pharmaceutical industry. The investigation produced a database that logs donations from S&P 500 drugmakers to nonprofit patient groups. This phenomenon is an important way the pharmaceutical industry influences public policy, and KHN's database provides the most comprehensive overview of it possible given the limited transparency required by U.S. tax law. Emily has also reported on campaign finance, the STOCK Act and vector-borne diseases. Before joining KHN, Emily worked as a web producer for POLITICO Pro, as a data researcher for a health care trade publication, and as an intern at OpenSecrets.