Vidya Krishnan
Journalist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Vidya Krishnan is a health-focused Canadian investigative journalist and author, based in Montreal.[1] She is known for her book about Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped our History.[2]
Vidya Krishnan | |
|---|---|
| Alma mater | Harvard University Oxford University SOAS, University of London |
| Occupations | Investigative Journalist, author |
| Known for | COVID-19 reporting |
| Notable work | Phantom Plague (2022 book) |
Life and career
Vidya Krishnan started her career in 2003 at The Pioneer newspaper. As a freelance journalist, she regularly writes for Foreign Policy,[3] The Caravan,[4] and The Atlantic,[5][6] and The New York Times.[7] She was previously the health editor for The Hindu.[8]
She has reported on issues including the Rohingya genocide, tuberculosis, the right to health movement, and ethical standards in Indian clinical trials of pharmaceutical drugs.[9][10] Krishnan reported facing sexual harassment at India Today in 2018.[11]
In 2020, after years of health reporting, Krishnan spoke about navigating high levels of online harassment while reporting on COVID-19[8] including receiving death and rape threats.[12]
Throughout 2021, Krishnan was critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.[13][14] She spoke about how the pandemic is disproportionately affecting poor people, and that the response is not led by scientists.[15][16][17][18] She received online abuse and death threats due to her reporting about the pandemic.[19]
She wrote one of four essays in "The Talk", a collaborative series published by The Emancipator that won an Edward R. Murrow Award in 2023.[20][21] The series was about the difficult conversations taking place in the homes of marginalized families in order to keep their children safe in a society gripped by culture wars and deeply entrenched racism in the United States.
In 2025, she published her second book, White Lilies: An Essay on Grief[22][23] (Westland) about poetry, Delhi and road rage.
In January 2026, she joined the People's Archive of Rural India as a Senior Fellow, reporting on rural healthcare in India.
Selected publications
- Vidya Krishnan, 2022, Phantom Plague: How Tuberculosis Shaped our History, PublicAffairs, ISBN 978-1-5417-6846-8[24][25]
- Vidya Krishnan, 2025, White Lilies: An Essay on Grief. New Delhi: Westland/Context, ISBN 978-9360451318.[22][23]
Awards
Krishnan won a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University to study the impact of behavioral economics on antibiotic use, with a specific focus on self-medication and antibiotic resistance.[10]
In 2017, she received the International Health Media Fellowships award.[26] She has won the Oxford University's global health journalism fellowship, a National Press Foundation fellowship, and McGill University's global health media scholarship.[27]