Meryl Kornfield Profile picture
Staff writer for @washingtonpost. Reach me at meryl.kornfield@washpost.com, DM or Signal. Forever proud of my @thealligator/@ufjschool roots 🐊
Feb 12 10 tweets 2 min read
If you see a video clip on Twitter of a live event and are wondering why you can’t find a story on it yet, let me explain what’s happening behind the scenes as you are Googling:
1) Reporter sees the news
2) Reporter flags it to an editor
3) Editor assigns the story
(cont.) 4) Reporter reached out to relevant people, as well as experts and others for context (it might take longer depending on where the reporter is to make calls i.e. can’t make calls in events)
5) Reporter researches history and relevant background of the issue
(cont.)
Aug 23, 2021 5 tweets 1 min read
During the hearing on Florida's restrictions for requiring students wear masks, one of the attorneys representing parents has been coughing all day. She told the judge she caught covid from her preschooler. This hearing is virtual because the judge said last week that there was an outbreak among court staff. Also, another attorney representing the parents says a medical expert has covid too ->
Aug 23, 2021 4 tweets 1 min read
In a hearing for the lawsuit by parents against Florida's mask mandate ban, the legal team for DeSantis is showing a graph they say proves mandates weren't effective last year. I've asked DeSantis's office several times for the underlying data for that graph and not received it. For reference, here’s Kyle Lamb from the governor’s office sharing the graph last week on Twitter. Now the state has presented it in court, but no one from DeSantis’s office has shared the underlying data since I’ve emailed, called, tweeted, DMed and sent a records request.
Aug 21, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
Happy Friday, y'all! Inspired by readers' coronavirus questions, I wrote explainers this week to help decipher some complex topics. To figure out what people wanted to know, I dived into our newsroom's submission form ⬇️and found some great queries hosted-washpost.submissionplatform.com/sub/hosted/5e2… In the first story, I address saliva tests. The latest one to get FDA authorization was lauded as "groundbreaking." Is it? What advantages could these tests have over the traditional nasal swab? Will it become more widespread? washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08…
Feb 24, 2019 7 tweets 2 min read
THREAD: @taylourmarks and I spent the last two days in Panama City, and I’m still processing everything we saw. One main lesson learned: It’s been 4 months since #HurricaneMichael, and the Panhandle is years away from recovery. Years might sound dramatic but the estimate for rebuilding Tyndall Air Force Base — which is related to a third of Bay County’s economic activity — is five years.