Pandemic, Inc., J. David McSwane
Pandemic, Inc., J. David McSwane
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Pandemic, Inc.
Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick

Author: J. David McSwane

Narrator: Matt Godfrey

Unabridged: 10 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/12/2022


Synopsis

“This startling, vital book deserves our attention.” —San Francisco Chronicle

For fans 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 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, called “revelatory” by The Washington Post, 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 monumental, Pandemic, Inc. exposes a system that is both deeply rigged, and singularly American.

About J. David McSwane

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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Stefan on April 29, 2022

The third or so of the book that is actually about "Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick" is pretty good. Unfortunately, the book is padded-out by hundreds of pages of rehashing dubious pandemic narratives. We get a whole chapter about Greg Abbott, where we learn that h......more

Goodreads review by Todd on April 12, 2022

A whirlwind of top-notch investigative journalism, deftly arranged to read like a thriller. I'll confess, due to the subject matter of this book and a bit of COVID news exhaustion on my part, I did not expect Pandemic, Inc. to be a thrilling read. I was wrong. Once I got into the story, I couldn't pu......more

Goodreads review by Mark on April 12, 2022

These are the crooks, swindlers, bumbling bureaucrats and crooked politicians in the White House and Congress who stole billions of dollars during the world’s greatest pandemic. The author is a veteran newspaper investigative reporter who follows the money in one of the greatest swindles in American......more

Goodreads review by Andy on May 03, 2022

Too much detail on one magazine story stretched across the whole book.......more

Goodreads review by Valerie Burton on April 15, 2023

I thought the author showed that he had dug deep enough in his research to uncover what I believe to be undeniable truths in our system of government when it came to how COVID was handled and what it shows about our flawed system so that liars and thieves get away with what they do. I also appreciat......more


Quotes

"Narrator Matt Godfrey presents this study of avarice and hucksterism with fluid pacing, a modulated delivery, and an occasional deadpan tone."