Reporters Carley Petesch, Lori Hinnant and Franklin Briceno, and photographer Martin Mejia collaborated across continents to highlight widespread government failures to ensure necessary supplies of medical oxygen as countries face a resurgent COVID-19.
A year into the pandemic and around the world, there is no good reason for people to still be dying due to shortages in medical oxygen. But they are. Drawing on reporting across Latin America and Africa, the team pulled together details of scams, corruption and overall mismanagement. The reporting was backed by strong photography, including Meija’s striking photos of people waiting for oxygen bottles, along with spot video coverage over the past month of people desperate to breathe while billions of dollars go unspent to help them.