Austria and Denmark Announce Timetables to End COVID-19 Lockdowns

Hmmm:

Austria and Denmark on Monday became the first European countries to announce concrete plans to reopen their societies after coronavirus lockdowns, hoping they may have already weathered the worst of the first wave of the pandemic….In Austria, small shops are slated to reopen April 13, with larger stores to follow on May 1….In Denmark, the plan is for nursery and primary schools to reopen April 13, while companies will resume business gradually.

Both countries say that because they began lockdowns relatively early, they’ve avoided the worst of the pandemic. And that’s true: their per-capita death rate from COVID-19 is fairly low. Still, it’s only been three weeks since their first case and neither country looks like it’s definitively out of the woods:

Austria might be past its peak—though the sample size is too small to say for sure—but there’s certainly nothing in Denmark’s trendline that looks like they’re in any shape to start reopening soon.

Jumping the gun because the public is getting antsy is a blunder. A seductive blunder, but a blunder nonetheless since it opens us up to the possibility of wasting weeks of effort. I sure hope Austria and Denmark know what they’re doing.

JUST TO BE CLEAR: I have no problem with national governments making plans for reopening. They should! I’m just not sure that it’s time to be tossing out dates yet.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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