Portrait of Apoorva Mandavilli

Apoorva Mandavilli

I write mainly about infectious diseases like Covid-19 and mpox, and scourges like H.I.V., malaria and tuberculosis that remain big killers in parts of the world. My reporting explores the pathogens that cause these diseases, the tools to try and stop their spread, and the public health agencies that try to manage them.

I have advanced degrees in science and journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and New York University, and have been writing (or editing) articles about science and health for more than 20 years. My work has appeared in publications including The Atlantic, Slate and The New Yorker, and in the anthology “Best American Science and Nature Writing.” I shared in The Times’s 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the pandemic, and have won several other awards, including the 2019 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting. I was the founding editor in chief of Spectrum, an award-winning news site on autism science, before joining The Times in May 2020.

I grew up in southern India but have lived in the United States since I arrived to attend college in the Midwest at age 17. There are endless public health stories to be told in India, so I go back once a year and try to report as much as I can. I speak four Indian languages, which is a real advantage when interviewing nonexperts. (I also speak some French, which can be helpful when reporting in Africa, and some Japanese, which is rarely useful, but still fun.)

Because I often write about vaccines and drugs, I do not have any financial or other ties to biotech and pharmaceutical companies. I do not go on press junkets sponsored by companies or hospitals, and do not accept fees for lectures sponsored by anyone I might write about. I respect science, but I hold scientists and their organizations accountable. I may rely on sources who wish to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, but I vet their claims with other sources or with documents. When talking to patients or families, I explain the reporting process clearly, and give them more leeway with confidentiality than I would a public figure or official. You can read more about The Times’s ethics guidelines.

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