New Jersey-based state government reporter Geoff Mulvihill and Camille Fassett, Report for America data journalist based in Santa Cruz, California, used solid reporting and data analysis to reveal that despite federal assurances, supplies of personal protective gear (PPE) are running short again as coronavirus cases surge around the country.
The analysis found that FEMA distributed a disproportion amount of PPE to mostly rural states. Montana, for example, had received 1,125 items of protective gear per case, compared with 32 items per case in Massachusetts, an early hot spot.
The AP story beat a national newspaper’s PPE story by a day.
Medical personnel prepare to test hundreds of people lined up in vehicles for free COVID-19 tests in Phoenix’s western neighborhood of Maryvale, June 27, 2020.
AP Photo / Matt York