Apoorva Mandavilli

Apoorva Mandavilli is an American investigative journalist whose work has focused on medical science.^[1] During the COVID-19 pandemic, she joined The New York Times as a health and science writer.^[2] In the spring of 2019, she was writer-in-residence at the University of Wisconsin, where she joined a panel discussion on vaccine refusal while writing about containing a measles outbreak in Lowell, Massachusetts.^[3][4][5]

Apoorva Mandavilli
Nationality	American
Education	New York University University of Wisconsin–Madison Augustana College
Occupation	Journalist
Employer	The New York Times
Known for	medical science articles
Website	apoorvamandavilli.com

Mandavilli is known for her work on autism, most notably being the founding editor-in-chief of Spectrum, an online publication that stemmed from the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative and is now part of The Transmitter.^[6] She co-founded Culture Dish, an organization dedicated to enhancing diversity in science journalism, and is the founding chair of the Diversity Committee for the National Association of Science Writers.^[7]

Mandavilli was the 2019 winner of the Victor L. Cohn award for scientific journalism.^[1] She grew up in Southern India and speaks four Indian languages. She came to the United States to attend college at age 17.^[8]

In May 2021, Mandavalli tweeted that the COVID-19 lab leak theory had "racist roots". After criticism, she deleted the tweet, stating it was "badly phrased".^[9][10]