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Title details for Pandemic, Inc. by J. David McSwane - Wait list

Pandemic, Inc.

Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick

by J. David McSwane
Matt Godfrey
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"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.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 12, 2022

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797138435
      • File size: 290100 KB
      • Duration: 10:04:22

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      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
    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 1, 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 expos�, 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

      Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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