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

by J. David McSwane

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Business, True Crime, Economics, Audiobook

336 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 2022

About the author

J. David McSwane is an investigative 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

[Stefan Armstrong · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 he, apparently unlike every other governor in America, sometimes acts in politically expedient ways! (Andrew Cuomo gets a free pass, even during the chapter on nursing homes.)

We also get the pro forma Trump and January 6th diatribes that are so lazy they might as well have been copied and pasted from any one of the thousands of others that have been published in the last five years. (I'm not a Trump fan, but if you don't have anything new or interesting to say about these topics (and the author does not), please stop tacking it on to every single thing you publish.)

In short, this would have been much better as a long-form Atlantic or New Yorker piece that stuck to what the title promised.

[Todd Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 put it down.

Through thorough first person investigative reporting and savvy writing, J. David McSwane shows that some of the most interesting stories are unfolding all around us, often in the unexplored gaps between the words of familiar news headlines.

McSwane does a deep a dive into some of those gaps, interviewing and reporting on several behind-the-scenes leaders, grifters, opportunists, and uniquely American figures who bungled our nation's COVID response and sought profit and advantage while others suffered and died.

If you want to know how government can go awry, and how corruption attempts to thrive in the dark shadows of crisis, this is the book. McSwane writes in the Author's Note that he hopes "this story will serve as a guide to future generations on what exactly they shouldn't do if faced with such a crisis." Here's hoping that people will pay attention to this well-documented account, and glean the right lessons from it.

[Mark Mathes · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 history. The federal government had the biggest cookie jar and everyone wanted a piece of it, he says. Why #journalism matters.

[Alexandru · Rating 3 out of 5]

A run of the mill journalistic book about various scams that happened during Covid and the scam artists that got rich from them. The US government poured millions and millions of dollars into various schemes during the Covid epidemic in an effort to try and secure masks, respirators, medical supplies and vaccines. Due to the urgency and also the unprecedented situation there were plenty of crooks that took advantage of this and swindled the government. Some of the crooks sold counterfeit medical supplies, others sold defective masks, others got contracts for masks which they never had in the first place. There are also some chapters highlighting the Trump government's inept handling of the crisis which led to huge waste of money but also loss of life. The book in itself is not a bad read but doesn't really bring anything new to the table.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

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

[Valerie Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 appreciated the sarcasm in his humor while he was blowing the reader’s mind with what he uncovered. I think he showed the reader enough proof on mask gouging, PPP fraud, how Big Pharma controls our system and the government fraud that goes with it. I think Dr. Bright said it the best at the end of the book..which was the only thing I highlighted in the entire book. Unfortunately investigative reporting doesn’t always have a good outcome and this is one of those times.

[Linda Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I leaned a few things about fraudulent pandemic contractors and people’s greed during times of trouble. Although the author is a fantastic writer, I felt the book was written in a ‘stream on consciousness’ fashion at time rather than making a point and reaching conclusions. It was not developed with facts and tracking down broad concepts to specifics. I had hoped for charts, proof of the problem, the problem expressed in dollars , percentages, etc. I did not think of this book as investigative journalism. In several places, I felt bit was a partisan book such as descriptions of January 6, a topic not really tied into pandemic greed. Overall, it was not what I had expected and I was disappointed.

[Ryan Nary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish some authors would stick with being authors and stop trying to be comedians. Examples:

"Now my shag and beard tufted out at the seams of my mask as if Teen Wolf had grown up and become a surgeon."

"Narrator voice: It was not fine."

It's okay to just write and not try to be clever or quirky!

[Eldon Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I look back over all that's happened since the dawn of the pandemic, it doesn't surprise me that rich people got richer. Sort of status quo these days. But J. David McSwane pulls back the curtain on the almost unbelievable swindles that average people attempted to pull off. And in a number of cases, did indeed pull off. A grim read on how far humanity can sink in a time of great need.

4 stars.

[Lillian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written with a propulsive, true crime style, the author illuminates the corrupt back story of the pandemic. However the story is rushed, and the tone used is far too colloquial for such a catastrophic event.

[Kristi Augenblick · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly, I wanted this to be better and it just disappointed me.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

McSwane has found a formula to be both engaging and informative whilst helping to make the subject matter less heavy for the reader. Although it's not a full in depth look at everyone who got rich during the pandemic, it didn't need to be to highlight the insanity of the Trump administrations way of procuring PPE. The examples presented in their own little narratives gave an almost thriller vibe, with twist and turns that just kept on getting crazier and crazier. The overarching dive into the PPE saga was blended effortlessly to help you get an idea of the scale of the fraud. It'll probably leave mad but also entertained.

[Jordan McPeek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who knew a book about federal government procurement could be so interesting and entertaining? The writing is what sets this one above. Partly the story of how this investigative journalist got the stories, partly the story of the scams themselves. And it is a story, not just a dry recitation of court records or whatever. Largely in the first person, author is funny and clever and keeps things moving. And the world of government contracting he describes is just something else. Yes, sometimes there’s a good reason for red tape! Audiobook performer did a fine job, too, nailed the timing for the humour.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author J. David McSwane, a Propublica journalist, has organized his (& other reporters) investigative work into an important book. Many of the fraudulent and criminal activities surrounding the Pandemic in the book have been in the news previously. Here McSwane has laid out fascinating detail and background that would otherwise be unavailable. A lot of this will be distressing, but should not be terribly surprising. People should be paying attention and “Pandemic, Inc” offers that opportunity. Highly recommended.

[Nicole Finch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another nonfiction book that filled me with rage! This book lays out all the politicians and businesspeople who got rich while our loved ones died. It was published in early 2022, so it rightly focuses on all the evil dipshittery of the Trump administration, but I admit I also want to see the sequel that lays out all the ways the Biden administration has screwed us over as well. McSwane is a lively and entertaining writer, and I didn't get bored at all.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

The investigative journalism is well done but damn was this depressing. It's also weird to read it while the pandemic is still raging on around us. I'm glad I read it but wish I'd been able to do that with more distance from the pandemic itself.

And the other reviews about McSwane trying a little too hard to be clever are spot on.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A kind of pop summary of the corruption and dishonesty that had the wealthy price gouging and ripping off the public and government to get protection from COVID-19. Pretty awful. Good for an accessible book.

[Georgette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. If you want another book to piss you off about how the pandemic was mishandled, this is the book.

[Galen Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written, fascinating...and also, I am just so tired of learning more and more details about why we lost more than a million people to a preventable disease.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading about Covid while still sick from Covid 🦠 1) we were shockingly unprepared for a pandemic; 2) capitalism is toxic and nearly as culpable as the virus; 3) this will happen again.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is insightful, reinforcing, eye opening, and heart breaking. It tells the story with no blinders on.

[Joy]

This book was not what I expected... I was expecting more of a news story but it turned out to be full of eccentric characters, horrible tales of corruption and greed. Even more important is that the author is funny and when things are so terrible you want to curse he says something to make you laugh... The level of incompetence shown by our government during the pandemic on all sides and the greed from the private sector shows a real need for some serious changes in the future in case we have to be prepared for another crazy event... Cannot recommend this book highly enough it is serious stuff but handled with wit and research... great book

[Marc94 · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it's important for this topic to be researched, this was pretty boring and depressing.

[Chris Boutté · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly think everyone should read this book. Aside from J. David McSwane being an incredible writer and an extremely brave journalist, I couldn’t put this book down as I learned more about all of the shady things that happened during the pandemic. This book highlights stories of the thieves and con artists who made tremendous amounts of money while taking advantage of an incompetent Trump administration. The anger I felt throughout the book can’t even be put into words.

First, I can’t believe the amount of work J. David McSwane put into investigating the fraud and follies throughout the pandemic. He legitimately gave me a new respect for journalism. This guy was doing interviews while putting himself at risk of getting COVID, and at one point, you think he’s going to get punched in the face by a scammer selling bogus COVID tests. He pressed people during his interviews and even went as far as to travel around the country to see these mythical mask supplies when he was 90% sure it was going to be a waste of time.

In this book, you’ll learn about the billions of wasted dollars from an incompetent Trump administration. McSwane describes how we could have had millions of masks early on, but Trumps team prioritized giving contracts to people who would help Trump or the republican party. Then, due to terrible planning and oversight, countless scammers created LLCs, and days later would get multi-million dollar contracts for masks with no evidence that they actually had them. Many of the scammers either had been or were currently being investigated for fraud, but nobody did the due diligence.

I could write about this book all day long, but please just don’t get it. I honestly don’t know how anyone could even consider re-electing this man. Countless lives were lost because he was terrible and had just as bad people working for him. Republicans scream about government spending, and they literally gave away billions to scammers who knew that the early pandemic was an easy way to make millions.

Go get this book, and try meditating in between chapters so your blood pressure doesn’t skyrocket due to pure rage.

[Dan Dundon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's probably not a good idea to read this book if you get easily upset about government waste and private enterprise greed. J. David McSwane does an excellent job of illustrating both of these factors in Pandemic Inc. He also does a good job of attempting to balance the efforts to defraud the federal government with the good developments such as vaccine research that was the salvation of our country.
Nevertheless, the work leaves me with little confidence when it comes to any type of government intervention in society today. It really doesn't matter if we're talking about pandemic spending, the paycheck protection program, dangerous masks, or Medicare fraud, there appears to be an ample supply of crooks who are capable of defrauding taxpayer money.
Perhaps the funniest part of this book comes with McSwane says at the end of the book that he hopes investigations such as his will help to limit this kind of fraud in the future.
Dream on Mr. McSwane. For as long as your are doing investigative reporting, you will find an ample number of crooks aiming to fraudulently obtain taxpayer money. Unfortunately in many cases, they will be successful.

[Book Shark · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

“Pandemic, Inc.” an expose of those who took advantage of a global pandemic to enrich themselves at the expense of a desperate public. Investigative reporter J. David McSwane goes behind the curtain to investigate the crooked networks of brokers, scammers, investors and profiteers who went out of their way to enrich themselves. He also examines the inept response from the Trump administration. This revelatory 328-page book includes twenty-three chapters and an epilogue.

Positives:
1. Solid investigative journalism led to this book. Good use of humor, and its engaging style will reel readers in.
2. The fascinating topic of the pandemic industry.
3. Provides the author’s purpose of the book upfront. “My goal in writing this book is twofold. First, to make some sense of the larger system churning over our heads and its role in our nation’s missteps—that is to say, unfettered capitalism and its byproduct, greed. Second, for posterity.”
4. Provocative statements. “How did the most advanced, the wealthiest country in the world, with just 4 percent of the global population, at one point come to account for one in five COVID deaths and nearly a quarter of all cases worldwide?”
5. Does a good job of retelling the COVID-19 story. “On March 11, the WHO made it official: COVID-19 was a global pandemic.”
6. Mismanagement by Trump’s Administration, fake cures. “At the same time Navarro and Hatfill worked out the Phlow deal, Navarro’s team was also trying to secure a $765 million loan to Eastman Kodak, the photography company, to help produce hydroxychloroquine.”
7. Mismanagement of funds. “I connected with as many of these brokers as I could and was shocked to learn that, during this particular time in lockdown, people were wiring fortunes to strangers based on little else than a grainy video.”
8. Explains the three-step process to riches. “Step One: Get a purchase order from a desperate government agency. Step Two: Use the purchase order to get financing from private investors. Step Three: Buy masks from China.”
9. Differences between blue and red states in handling the pandemic. “In California, a blue state, residents were militant about masks, even in open-air situations. In Texas, a red state, people were galvanized against the oppression of a basic, if inconvenient, public health measure.
10. How scoundrels tricked users into buying masks not suitable for hospitals. “Comparing Rivera’s photo and TDEM’s, the packages were identical but for the important words that were missing from the final packaging: “MEDICAL USE PROHIBITED.”
11. Describes poorly run states like Texas by their governor, Abbott. “In his unbearable way, Jones and others spread fear that Jade Helm was a precursor to the martial law takeover of the United States at the direction of Obama, a sort of Trojan horse. Such folderol could be expected to dissipate, but in one of his first acts as governor, Abbott validated the fringe of his party and the rampant conspiracy theories spreading online. He ordered the Texas State Guard to monitor the situation—that is, somehow watch over the Pentagon—“to address concerns of Texas citizens and to ensure that Texas communities remain safe, secure, and informed…””
12. Uncovers many troubling transactions that occurred during the pandemic. “Several studies would show that banks favored wealthy white borrowers at the expense of minority companies in dire need of assistance.”
13. Exposes lucrative lies. “In one breath, Kennedy managed to evoke our deepest societal fears and resentments and associate them with outlandish fantasies such as that Microsoft founder Bill Gates had sneaked microchips into the vaccine or that COVID-19 was actually caused by the advent of 5G cellular infrastructure.”
14. Exposes disseminators of lies. “Before social media companies began to crack down on vaccine misinformation in 2021, Kennedy and the nonprofit boasted almost 2 million followers across platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, according to an analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an international nonprofit that tracks the online spread of racist propaganda and medical misinformation.”
15. Describes how big pharmaceutical companies cashed in on the pandemic. “After raising more than $2 billion, Moderna hauled in another $600 million in its initial public stock offering. In January 2020, before announcing it was working on a COVID vaccine, the company was worth around $6 billion. BioNtech also went public in the fall of 2019, raising a more modest $150 million, for a total valuation of about $3.4 billion.” “The boom in biotech and healthcare stocks created at least forty new billionaires who had ties to companies that gained from COVID-19, Forbes magazine would report in April 2021.”
16. The devastation of the pandemic.
17. Describes cases of accountability. “The first count, making false statements to the federal government, stemmed from what I reported along our hapless journey in late April 2020. The U.S. prosecutor discovered Stewart had explicitly stated in emails to FEMA and the VA that he had millions of N95 masks in his possession. As a result of those lies, he was awarded two no-bid contracts, together worth $38.5 million.”
18. Notes included.

Negatives:
1. The book overpromised.
2. Lack of charts and visual material that would have added much needed depth to this book.
3. The book is slow at times, it drags.
4. Should have done a better job of presenting the facts. Once again, charts and diagrams would have helped make his case clearer particularly to the more visual readers.
5. Should have done a better job of describing of what it takes to get a government contract through and how scoundrels are held accountable.
6. I wanted more clearly stated facts.

In summary, I wanted to like this more than I actually did. The search for the truth dragged a bit and the reader has to pay a price for that. Ultimately, the author does deliver and through the journey makes interesting revelations of how opportunists take advantage of chaos to enrich themselves and how some are caught and held accountable. Average to good book, a marginal recommendation.
Further recommendations: “How to Prevent the Next Pandemic” by Bill Gates, “Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science” by Peter J. Hotez, “The Great Influenza” by John M. Barry, “Pandemic 1918” by Catharine Arnold, “Flu” by Gina Kolata, and “Influenza” by Jeremy Brown.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thesis is incredibly simple. Decades of Congressweenies (both parties) thinking voters (but it was Big Money really, right?) demanded what Grover Norquist characterized as making government so small it could be drowned in a bathtub... then, after incrementally disabling disaster preparedness stockpiles, in a fit of insanity, we got Trump who unashamedly declared and proceeded like the proverbial bull in a Chyna (misspelled purposely) closet to dismantle everything the federal government does to protect public health and safety.

When the disaster was too late to forestall, even though adequate history of pandemics (i.e. the 1918 Spanish Flu up to 2009 swine flu and even more recent, Ebola outbreaks) had provided necessary insight to prevent it all, the only thing that could be done was to urgently scrounge up hundreds of millions of N95 masks and other PPE to protect frontline healthcare workers and develop vaccines. The PPE came too late to prevent the death of hundreds of thousands. When the vaccines came, those not conned by trumpism took a series of shots (jabs) that DID save lives.

By the way, grocery store shelves went bare rapidly too.

Trump and company downplayed it all, but the economy went in the sh***er anyway. Fraudsters saw opportunities galore because government purchasing system guardrails had to be removed for expediency.

Like I said, the thesis is simple. But investigative journalist McSwane found plenty of juicy background to fill out the pages of his book. There are heroes. There are villains.

The salient question is whether or not America and the world will adequately adjust in time to prevent another Trumpocalypse of a pandemic or some other inevitable, foreseeable disaster.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find this to be a very necessary book. The best I’ve ever read? Of course not. And it will be easy to look with hindsight and see everything that went wrong, but this book details (more or less) in real time the way that things unfolded. It does this in an extremely accessible and empathetic way, which I find valuable.

One of the best choices was starting with the Strategjc National Stockpile, which I had yet to hear of until now. This set the stage to show that while the pandemic caught the majority of us off-guard, those who know what they are talking about knew we should have been more prepared. The focus is on capitalists and grifters, but the real blame falls on the American government (I know, no real difference) and I appreciated the way that McSwane made sure to underline the ways that they failed the public and contributed to the problems while keeping politics at arms length.

While it often read like a Vice article, I eventually grew fond of the writing style. It is accessible and self-reflective, which, I feel, serves the topic very well. Near the end he likens his journey to a Coen Brothers movie, which sounds about right. This is an indictment of our government, healthcare, and fellow citizens, the majority of whom don’t know what they’re doing and—bafflingly—the majority of those refuse to learn, accept responsibility, or consider others. Taking a broad view of everything that happened, this almost reads as a case study for a worst case scenario of pandemics that will continue to occur.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, I read the hard cover version of Pandemic Inc.

Two of the chapters I liked from the book are chapter 10: History Rhymes which talks about the 1918 flu and some of the price gouging and snake oil salesmen from that pandemic.

And chapter 19: Lucrative Lies which talks about some Anti vaxxers and people peddling useless pills.

Before reading pandemic inc. I had heard about fraud related to the pandemic but, had not given it much thought.

Pandemic inc. talks to people who try to acquire N95 masks. It tells about a company that uses cheap plastic soda bottle blanks and a saline solution as test kits. It talks about a nursing home where a lot or most of the patients got sick. To a company repackaging masks for medical use. To people claiming employees that don't exist to get ppp money.

And J David even tells a story about a unsuccessful actor who got millions of dollars and spent it on cars and a mansion and paying of debt. If forget whey he got the money maybe he claimed he had a lot of employees so he got ppp money.

Oh, and there is even a story about a fintech lending companies that gave out a lot of ppp loans I think it was. They got 5 percent of every loan they made. And they did little checking of the people they gave loans to.

I learned a lot of stuff I did not know from reading Pandemic Inc. It shocked me that people could be so dishonest when it comes to money. I suppose I should not be shocked. But, I was

[Regan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent read. Pandemic, Inc. stands out from all the other books on COVID-19. It is part Mr. McSwane's personal story as well as that of how the steps, missteps and conning of the government and people made dealing with the Pandemic worse than it should have been. His story starts with Mr. Stewart who pops up here and there in the telling. McSwane leaves it to his readers to decide for themselves if Stewart was a con artist who got caught or a good guy who made some stupid mistakes.

McSwane has an engaging writing style and even in amidst the sad events around COVID-19 there are a few moment where you just have to chuckle -- usually when he looks at himself and how he was investigating the frauds committed around the desperately needed PPEs.

There is one story at the end where one of the women in the story went to visit her father in a care facility and I almost cried when the woman realized all her father's friends died from COVID. What McSwane exposed in telling her story was the callus disregard so many of the care facilities that get their money from the government -- our tax dollars -- of their very vulnerable patients.

I hope Mr. McSwane will continue to write books -- I'll definitely be following him on Propublica, but as a writer, an investigative journalist, he is an amazing author.