Pandemic, Inc.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick

"This startling, vital book deserves our attention." --San Francisco Chronicle

For readers of War Dogs and Bad Blood, an explosive look inside the rush to profit from the COVID-19 pandemic, from the award-winning ProPublica reporter who saw it firsthand.

The United States federal government has spent over $10 billion on medical protective wear and emergency supplies, yet as COVID-19 swept the nation, life-saving equipment such as masks, gloves, and ventilators was nearly impossible to find.

In this brilliant nonfiction thriller, award-winning investigative reporter J. David McSwane takes us behind the scenes to reveal how traders, contractors, and healthcare companies used one of the darkest moments in American history to fill their pockets. Determined to uncover how this was possible, he spent over a year on private jets and in secret warehouses, traveling from California to Chicago to Washington DC, to interview both the most treacherous of profiteers and the victims of their crimes.

Pandemic, Inc. is the story of the fraudster who signed a multi-million-dollar contract with the government to provide lifesaving PPE, and yet never came up with a single mask. The Navy admiral at the helm of the national hunt for additional medical resources. The Department of Health whistleblower who championed masks early on and was silenced by the government and conservative media. And the politician who callously slashed federal emergency funding and gutted the federal PPE stockpile.

Winner of the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, McSwane connects the dots between backdoor deals and the spoils systems to provide the definitive account of how this pandemic was so catastrophically mishandled. Shocking and revelatory, Pandemic, Inc. exposes a system that is both deeply rigged, and singularly American.

Author: J. David McSwane
Publisher: Atria/One Signal Publishers
Published: 04/12/2022
Pages: 336
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781982177744


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2022
Publishers Weekly 03/07/2022
Booklist 03/15/2022 pg. 30

About the Author
McSwane, J. David: - J. David McSwane is a reporter in ProPublica's Washington, DC, office. Previously, he was an investigative reporter for The Dallas Morning News and the Austin-American Statesman. McSwane's reporting has spurred new laws and state and federal criminal investigations; forced belt-tightening lawmakers to invest in social programs; and won awards including Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize, a Scripps Howard award, an IRE award, and the Peabody.