March 18, 2020

We Need More Hospital Beds

This is Italy. But it's going to get way worse than this.Cozzoli/Fotogramma/Ropi via ZUMA

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Coronavirus countermeasures can flatten the curve of infections, but it’s now clear that they won’t flatten it enough. There’s just not enough time. So in addition to continuing efforts to reduce the infection rate, our top priority needs to be the construction of temporary hospital capacity. Ideally this would be intensive care capacity, but if that’s not feasible then we just have to come as close as we can.

This needs to start now. As in today. It needs essentially infinite funding. It has to be nationwide. Construction needs to be a 24/7 effort. We only have until June to be up and running. That’s ten weeks from now.

It’s time to stop screwing around. Donald Trump’s reelection checks can wait a few days. Job 1 right now is the construction of more hospital capacity.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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