“What Happened in Room 10?” was, and remains, the definitive narrative account of the first COVD-19 hotspot in the United States. A remarkable work of investigative reporting and storytelling by journalist Katie Engelhart, it reconstructs the confusion, chaos, and fear as a mysterious new disease spreads through the Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington. Forty-six people associated with the nursing home died, exposing how ill-prepared we were for the pandemic – and how we take care of our elderly.
Despite the enormous logistical constraints of reporting during the early months of COVID-19-and especially reporting on nursing homes, which remain to this day mostly inaccessible and opaque to the public, even in some cases to family members of residents-Ms. Engelhart reconstructed an extraordinary, unparalleled account of a nursing home in the grip of the pandemic. It is all the more impressive given that face-to-face contact with sources was nearly impossible. Her nearly 17,000-word investigative feature is both a precise, rigorous account of what went wrong, and why, and a work of breathtakingly intimate storytelling. Indeed, it is rare to see such lovely, intimate writing in a feature that requires such difficult investigative reporting and technical explanation, and across disciplines-health care, business, and public policy.