Pratik Pawar

About me

Pratik Pawar is a journalist who covers science, public health, medicine, and science policy. His reporting illuminates how systemic inequities shape public health outcomes, particularly in the Global South. He is currently at the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT.

Pratik's work appears in leading publications including Science, Nature, The Atlantic, and Undark Magazine, with stories frequently syndicated across major outlets. His investigation of the malaria vaccine's decades-long development was cited by The New York Times, and he broke critical stories about cholera preparedness and vaccine shortages for Undark and Science. In 2022, he served as an early-career fellow at The Open Notebook, developing comprehensive guides for science journalists. He previously won the AAAS EurekAlert! Fellowship for International Science Reporters (2020) and completed the S. Ramaseshan science writing fellowship at the Indian Academy of Sciences (2019).

Prior to journalism, Pratik earned his master's in biotechnology and worked in India's pharmaceutical industry, experiences that inform his nuanced coverage of science and medicine. He lives in Cambridge, MA. For leads, tips, or collaborations, contact him via email.

Selected Writing

Global Health and Infectious Diseases

• The world's stockpile of cholera vaccine is empty—but relief is on the way
  A dramatic shortage of the oral vaccine may ease in the years ahead as more companies enter the market. Science magazine, January 2024
  

• The World Is Not Prepared for Another Cholera Wave
  More than forty countries reported cholera outbreaks in 2022. Researchers say that public health officials have all the tools necessary to stop cholera. So why has it been so hard to prepare for outbreaks? Undark, August 2023.
• Tracking Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
  With a flurry of vaccines and other therapeutics coming to the market, the need to understand the virus and its burden is more imminent than ever. Nature, September 2023.
• It Took 35 years to Get a Malaria Vaccine. Why?
  At a time when COVID-19 vaccines were developed and authorized in less than one year, the delay for malaria raises an obvious question: Why did a vaccine for a leading global killer take so long to arrive? Undark Magazine, May 2022. Republished by: The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Popular Science, Mother Jones
  

• Drug-Resistant Malaria Is Emerging in Africa. Is the World Ready?
  Resistance to the drug artemisinin was confirmed in Africa. Without better surveillance, it is hard to track the threat. Undark Magazine, January 2022. Republished by: NPR, The Wire Science, Salon, Gavi's VaccinesWork
  

• How COVID-19 Created a Perfect Storm For a Deadly Fungal Infection in India
  Amidst the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, numbers of rare but dangerous black fungal infections have skyrocketed. Science News, June 2021
  

Science and Science Policy

• India aims to invigorate science with hefty new funding agency
  Proposed National Research Foundation would spend $6 billion over 5 years, but is drawing mixed reactions. Science, July 2023
  

• How China is capturing attention with landmark research
  From ancient sea species to clues on comets, papers coming out of the country are regularly making headlines. Nature Index, August 2023
  
• Climate change may be leading to overcounts of endangered bonobos
  A changing climate in Congo is affecting how scientists count bonobos’ nests, possibly skewing estimates of the great ape population. Science News, July 2021
  
• Strict biodiversity laws prevent Indian scientists from sharing new microbes with the world
  “The claim on this wealth is meaningless if we cannot document it.” Science, October 2020
  

The Open Notebook (stories about the craft of science writing)

• How to Find and Publish Stories about Global Disease Outbreaks

• Writing Opinion Pieces as a Journalist

• Reporting on Scientific Retractions

For more such stories, click here

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