Bloomberg News reporter Jason Gale covered the paper’s swine flu beat for seven months, writing, editing and contributing to more than 300 Bloomberg News stories on the contagion. He correctly predicted the timing of the World Health Organization’s pandemic declaration; uncovered the unusual, global pattern of severe disease in obese patients; was first to describe the paradoxical way the pandemic has killed fewer people than seasonal flu yet overwhelms intensive care units; and highlighted an unnerving similarity to the 1918 Spanish Flu. His reporting on the epidemic in South America, Australia and New Zealand gave Northern Hemisphere countries an early warning of how a spate of infections in the fall might burden critical care facilities, cause non-urgent surgeries to get postponed and spur demand for sophisticated respiratory support, especially lung bypass machines.
