Coronavirus Growth in Western Countries: March 30 Update

Here’s the coronavirus growth rate through March 30. I have gotten many emails from Swedes telling me that weekends are sacred in Sweden and that’s why their numbers didn’t go up much on Saturday or Sunday. Nobody was at work to report them. Sure enough, they took a big jump on Monday and are now back on the Italian track. You can read more here about Sweden’s fatalistic approach to the pandemic. “Yes, there has been an increase,” explains their chief epidemiologist, “but it’s not traumatic so far. Of course, we’re going into a phase in the epidemic where we’ll see a lot more cases in the next few weeks, more people in the ICU, but that’s just like any other country — nowhere has been able to slow down the spread considerably.” Apparently the government is so trusted in Sweden that everyone is buying into this. It’s possible that we’re conducting a high-stakes field test here of whether high trust in government is necessarily a good thing.

FWIW, I’ve gotten some similar emails about Germany, suggesting that their low death rate is because they aren’t recording lots of COVID-19 deaths properly.  That could be, but I’d suggest that their death rate isn’t really all that low, so there’s nothing much to explain. Switzerland and the US are the only two countries that look solidly below the Italian trendline. Canada probably is too, but it’s a little too early to tell.

How to read the charts: Let’s use France as an example. For them, Day 0 was March 5, when they surpassed one death per 10 million by recording their sixth death. They are currently at Day 25; total deaths are at 505x their initial level; and they have recorded a total of 45.2 deaths per million so far. As the chart shows, this is slightly below where Italy was on their Day 25.

The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate