Virus Outbreak-Deadly Shortages, ADVISORY

From the very moment the coronavirus reached America’s shores, the country was unprepared. Hospitals, nursing homes and other health care facilities didn’t have the masks, gloves, gowns and other equipment needed to protect their workers and patients. Some got sick and spread the virus. Some died.

The Associated Press launched a 7-month investigation -- filing Freedom of Information Act requests, testing medical masks, interviewing dozens of experts from hard-hit hospitals to the White House -- to understand what was behind these critical shortages.

The AP followed the medical supply chains that span oceans and continents and are the fragile lifelines between raw materials and manufacturers overseas and health care workers on COVID-19 front lines. We found that link after link broke, until the system fell apart.

This catastrophic collapse was perhaps the country’s most consequential failure to control the virus. And it wasn’t unexpected: For decades, warnings about the risks associated with America’s overdependence on foreign manufacturing, and a lack of adequate preparation at home, have gone unheeded, The AP found.

The next story in the Deadly Shortages series — slugged Virus Outbreak-Deadly Shortages - moves 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6. It will include a text story of about 3,500 words, photos, video, graphics, a glance and an abridged version. The stories are written by reporters Martha Mendoza and Juliet Linderman and the video is by AP video journalist Allen Breed.

This project has been conducted in partnership with the PBS series “FRONTLINE” and the Global Reporting Centre. Frontline will air a one-hour documentary at 10 p.m. on Oct. 6 as well.

Find all of our virus coverage on the AP Newsroom Virus hub. https://newsroom.ap.org/page/Coronavirus

For more information, please contact Alison Kodjak, Deputy Investigations Editor, at [email protected].