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

by J. David McSwane

Overview

“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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982177744
Publisher:	Atria/One Signal Publishers
Publication date:	04/12/2022
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

J. David McSwane is a reporter in ProPublica’s 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, state and federal criminal investigations, and forced belt-tightening lawmakers to invest in social programs. He has won numerous awards, including Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize, a Scripps Howard Award, two Investigative Reporters and Editors Awards, and the Peabody.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Chapter 1 The Private Jet 1

Chapter 2 "Hindsight Just Isn't What It Used to Be" 13

Chapter 3 "We're in Deep Shit" 23

Chapter 4 Into a Gunfight with a Box of Tissues 39

Chapter 5 "It's Like Being on eBay with Fifty Other States" 49

Chapter 6 "You Might Be Buying a Ferrari" 65

Chapter 7 Release the Billions 79

Chapter 8 Buccaneers and Pirates 91

Chapter 9 Airborne 103

Chapter 10 History Rhymes 119

Chapter 11 "Juanita Ramos Is Either a Stripper in Atlanta or a Native American Medicine Woman" 125

Chapter 12 How to Make Millions Selling Masks, in Three Easy Steps! 129

Chapter 13 "I'm Not Going to Take Any of This" 145

Chapter 14 "It Works as Hand Sanitizer, Tool" 155

Chapter 15 "Greg Abbott Cares About Greg Abbott" 171

Chapter 16 "What's Your Problem, Man?" 181

Chapter 17 Money for Nothing, Checks for Free 193

Chapter 18 Dazed and Confused 205

Chapter 19 Lucrative Lies 217

Chapter 20 Underlying Conditions 225

Chapter 21 "Capitalism, Baby" 229

Chapter 22 The Death Pits 239

Chapter 23 A Pirate Walks the Plank 249

Epilogue 257

Acknowledgments 263

Notes 265

Index 299

Editorial Reviews

03/07/2022

Swindlers, price gougers, and unscrupulous politicians profited from the Covid-19 pandemic, according to this eye-opening investigation from ProPublica journalist McSwane. He alleges that much of the $8 billion handed out by the Paycheck Protection Program went to “unsavory actors,” and notes that senators Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler sold off their stock portfolios in February 2020 after hearing a classified briefing about the novel coronavirus. McSwane also reveals that, based on a recommendation by Jared Kushner, a Silicon Valley engineer with “no experience in medical supplies or government procurement” was given an $86 million contract by the state of New York to produce 1,450 ventilators and failed to deliver a single piece of equipment. In Dallas, McSwane visits the “crumbling” factory of Prestige Ameritech, one of the few American mask manufacturers, and meets an executive whose warnings about the dangers of relying on overseas companies for masks and other medical equipment went unheeded for more than a decade before Covid-19 hit. In San Antonio, McSwane talks with a man who repackages KN95 masks not approved for a medical setting and sells them to local hospitals. Lucid analysis and dogged reporting make this a startling exposé of how unfettered capitalism, startup culture, and government corruption exacerbated the worst effects of the pandemic. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2022-02-09
A justifiably indignant investigation into the financial malfeasance and outright swindling that accompanied the Trump administration’s botched handing of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Award-winning ProPublica reporter McSwane scathingly unveils a “shady networks of brokers, scammers, investors, and profiteers who did insane things to get rich while our nation suffered an incalculable loss of life and global standing.” Some acts weren’t exactly insane since those profiteers gamed a system already rigged, thanks to the Trump administration, in their favor. One case involves an investor who had landed a $34.5 million federal contract to provide 6 million N95 masks. Never mind that he “had zero experience sourcing medical supplies” and “knew little about how to navigate the supply chain, which almost always leads back to China, where American manufacturers had outsourced to keep wages low, prices attractive, and profits high.” He simply bid on the job, and the contract was awarded without competition. In the end, the masks—which should have cost about $1 apiece but were subject to exorbitant price gouging that “would swiftly result in criminal charges during a localized catastrophe, such as a hurricane”—never materialized. The scammer was far from alone in thinking that he could snag a contract, find a supplier, and deliver goods that were simply unavailable. Untold numbers of dollars went out the door, some by way of Cabinet member Peter Navarro, whom McSwane deems with nice irreverence “the Nicolas Cage of modern politics, unhinged but not always off his mark, beholden only to himself, amused by his own stunts.” Thanks to neglect of federal stockpiles and the deluge of rip-off artists, when Covid-19 arrived, “the United States had on hand just 1 percent of what we needed for the coming onslaught.” The situation has since improved, no thanks to Trump and the con artists who, if they came through at all, often delivered counterfeit goods that were useless and even dangerous.

Revealing one outrage after another, McSwane's book should prompt congressional review and systemic reform.

Kirkus Reviews

"Revelatory... Laugh-out-loud funny. If the whole story weren’t so tragically and disgustingly real, “Pandemic Inc.” could be mistaken as the script for a “Saturday Night Live” skit. But embedded in the mirth is a wholesale indictment of this toxic brew of unfettered capitalism and greed."
—The Washington Post

"A distressing and important book"
—Stephanie Ruhle, MSNBC

"[Pandemic Inc.] isn’t so much a story about a virus as a tale about America"
—The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A deep dive...there are lessons to learn from this."
—The Daily Beast

"A justifiably indignant investigation into the financial malfeasance and outright swindling that accompanied the Trump administration’s botched handing of the Covid-19 pandemic... Revealing one outrage after another, McSwane's book should prompt congressional review and systemic reform."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"McSwane's unravelling of corporate, government, and private shenanigans during the COVID-19 crisis packs a tremendous wallop because the pandemic has impacted everyone to various degrees."
—Booklist (starred review)

"[An] eye-opening investigation...Lucid analysis and dogged reporting make this a startling exposé of how unfettered capitalism, startup culture, and government corruption exacerbated the worst effects of the pandemic."
—Publishers Weekly

"Pandemic, Inc. is a triumph of investigative reporting and a rollercoaster of a story. With blunt prose and a novelist's eye, McSwane takes readers inside private jets and dirty warehouses to expose all manner of crazy and criminal enterprise— and the result is stranger than fiction."
—Ken Armstrong, Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter and coauthor of Unbelievable

"Pandemic, Inc. is a witty, angry propulsive narrative, and a profound exercise in accountability. Its lessons—how and why fraud invaded so many corners of America's crisis response—are critical to understanding why the richest nation on earth suffered so grievously in this plague. I couldn't put it down."
—Diana B. Henriques, New York Times bestselling author of The Wizard of Lies

“McSwane’s book is two vital stories of the global pandemic, masterfully woven together: An infuriating account of how ill-prepared the Trump Administration was and the often-hilarious romp into the strange world of grifters and opportunists who tried to seize advantage.”
—Jesse Eisinger, Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter and author of The Chickenshit Club

"J. David McSwane's relentless reporting could have produced a jaw-dropping work of history. Instead, the merciless fraud he exposes ensured continuing losses. Corruption spread as swiftly as the virus, and we're in McSwane's debt for exposing a horrific waste of money—and lives."
—Charlotte Bismuth, author of Bad Medicine and former prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney's office

From the Publisher

★ 09/01/2022

McSwane, a reporter for ProPublica, has won several investigative journalism awards, including Harvard's Goldsmith Prize, for reporting on mismanaged health care in Texas. Here, he targets America's botched handling of the COVID pandemic, not to depress us, he says, but instead to spur us to action because "anger is more useful than despair." There is so much to be angry about in this jaw-dropping exposé, which shines a light on greedy corporations, shady entrepreneurs, and inept government workers who clearly cared more about profits and their reputations than, quite literally, the life and death of American hospital workers and citizens. McSwane recounts his cross-country pursuit of charlatans in the first person, and narrator Matt Godfrey perfectly assumes the persona of the crack investigative reporter, absolutely nailing McSwane's tone, which varies from indignant to exasperated to deadpan. VERDICT With engrossing narration from Godfrey, this call-to-action for increased pandemic preparedness, including the removal of partisan politics and unrestrained capitalism from future health-care emergencies, is an essential purchase for all libraries.—Beth Farrell

Library Journal - Audio

Narrator Matt Godfrey presents this study of avarice and hucksterism with fluid pacing, a modulated delivery, and an occasional deadpan tone. He's thoroughly simpatico with the author, a ProPublica reporter, and he makes this first-person audiobook engrossing and occasionally entertaining. The lead example of green at other people’s expense revolves around a novice contractor who was awarded a $34 million contract to supply six million masks to the Veterans Administration. He has no idea where he will get them and ultimately fails in his quest. The audiobook moves swiftly through similar travesties and explains how $1 billion in fraud was committed at the height of the pandemic while, at the same time, 500 new billionaires were minted. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

MAY 2022 - AudioFile

Narrator Matt Godfrey presents this study of avarice and hucksterism with fluid pacing, a modulated delivery, and an occasional deadpan tone. He's thoroughly simpatico with the author, a ProPublica reporter, and he makes this first-person audiobook engrossing and occasionally entertaining. The lead example of green at other people’s expense revolves around a novice contractor who was awarded a $34 million contract to supply six million masks to the Veterans Administration. He has no idea where he will get them and ultimately fails in his quest. The audiobook moves swiftly through similar travesties and explains how $1 billion in fraud was committed at the height of the pandemic while, at the same time, 500 new billionaires were minted. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

MAY 2022 - AudioFile