Lauren Gardner | Reporter
POLITICO

Lauren is a reporter at POLITICO, with a focus on the FDA and pharmaceutical policy. She writes about how the world-renowned agency green-lights medical products and ensures their safety — and how they're ultimately adopted by American consumers. Her coverage spans from childhood vaccines to blockbuster weight-loss drugs, examining how those products and the federal government's oversight of them influence public health. Lauren started covering health care in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic, documenting the rollout of vaccines and treatments, and the challenges along the way. That experience has informed her reporting amid growing vaccine hesitancy and mistrust in scientific institutions in the U.S. Lauren also has covered transportation and Canada-U.S. relations for POLITICO, where her reporting took her from the Gulf Coast to Vancouver. Her accountability work in those areas exposed a federal official who held a second job as a PR consultant and an ambassador who was often absent from her post. Lauren previously covered energy and environmental policy at CQ Roll Call. She started her career as an IRS reporter for BNA, now known as Bloomberg Industry Group.