Lenora Chu is a journalist, public speaker, and media strategist with over 15 years of experience in the U.S., China, and Europe. Now based in Berlin, Germany, she covers Europe for the nonprofit news organization Christian Science Monitor. A long-time journalist, Lenora focuses on the intersection of politics, education, and culture in her reporting. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and New York magazine, among others. Her book, “Little Soldier” won the “Best Education Book of 2017” among other awards. In 2019, she was named to the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
Chu, a journalist based in Berlin, Germany, was covering the pandemic impact in Europe for the Christian Science Monitor. In this interview, she recalled her trip to China in January 2020 where the coronavirus originated, and a conference later in Seattle where the U.S. documented its first COVID death. She compared the public attitudes toward science, government orders, and journalists in the U.S. and Germany, and how the two countries handled disinformation and misinformation. She traced the cultural, political, and historical factors that may have resulted in the differences between the two countries. She commented on the challenges of maintaining a work-life balance during lockdowns, changes to work routines, and women journalists' contributions.