Award-winning ProPublica reporter J. David McSwane joins Zerlina and Jess on the show to discuss his new book PANDEMIC, INC.: Chasing the Capitalists and Thieves Who Got Rich While We Got Sick, out now!
It’s an explosive look inside the rush to profit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Investigating anonymous tips and financial data about federal PPE contracts, McSwane spent over a year traveling the country and interviewing both the most treacherous profiteers and the victims of their crimes to find out just how things got so bad, so quickly.
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, two IRE awards, and the Peabody.
To date, the United States federal government has spent over $10 billion on medical protective wear and emergency supplies—and states have spent even more—yet shortages of lifesaving protective equipment persist. While hundreds of thousands of people died, disproportionately in poor and marginalized communities, a handful of “pirates” used this dark moment to fill their pockets. PANDEMIC, INC. is the story of those at the heart of this latest era of disaster capitalism —including the man who signed a multi-million-dollar contract with the government to provide lifesaving PPE, yet never came up with a single mask; the Department of Health whistleblower who championed masks early on, but was silenced by the government and conservative media; and the politician who callously slashed federal emergency funding and gutted the federal PPE stockpile. This gripping journalistic account uncovers the stories of fraud and empty promises that prioritized cash over human lives. Horrifying yet eye-opening and written with sharp scrutiny, PANDEMIC, INC.is a brilliant indictment of a system that is both deeply rigged, and singularly American.