ProPublica links to articles

When will we have a vaccine for the coronavirus? It’s the question on everyone’s mind, and reporter Caroline Chen dug into it.
It might not be coming as quickly as some expect, and she explains the tremendous challenges that lie ahead, from development to clinical trials and distribution. But there is much to be hopeful about, she says.
She also breaks down the discussion around “fast-tracking” a vaccine. It sounds great, sure, but it’s not quite that simple. There are many ways to shorten the vaccine development timeline, but they could be contentious.
Deputy managing editor Charles Ornstein took a look at how America’s hospitals survived the first wave of COVID-19. He wanted to know why experts were wrong when they said hospitals would be overwhelmed by coronavirus patients.
The models used to calculate the number of people who would need hospitalization were based on assumptions that didn’t prove out. He also found out what hospitals can do before the next wave.
The Trump administration paid millions for test tubes — and got unusable mini soda bottles instead. Reporters J. David McSwane and Ryan Gabrielson found a first-time federal contractor with a sketchy owner that supplies plastic tubes for coronavirus testing. The tubes don’t even fit in the racks used to analyze samples. Oh, and they may be contaminated anyway.





Reverse It






General Motors received tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks to operate a massive assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, until at least 2027. (Personally, I am just trying to make it through 2020 right now.) The plant closed last year, making national headlines and drawing the ire of President Donald Trump.
Now, previously unreported documents show that Ohio may force the automaker to repay more than $60 million in public subsidies. “If the state were to claw back $60 million, that would be one of the biggest clawback events in U.S. history,” one expert said.





“Somebody’s Gotta Help Me”






Phillip Garcia was in psychiatric crisis. In jail and in the hospital, guards responded with force and restrained the 51-year-old inmate for almost 20 hours, until he died. Over the last five hours of Garcia’s life, a ProPublica investigation found, nurses and deputies appeared oblivious to both his psychosis and a potentially fatal condition, doing nothing to treat either.
The footage contained in this story is graphic, but we chose to release disturbing, selected scenes from his time in custody in hopes that their significance outweighs the pain it will cause. Read more about our choice to be transparent in a note from Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg.