April 21, 2020

Yes, I Bought a Pulse Oximeter Today

Just to follow up on this morning’s post, I did indeed go out to Walgreens and buy a pulse oximeter today:

Why not? It was cheap, and since I have breathing problems anyway it might be handy to have around. My reading of 97 percent is fairly ordinary. Below 90 percent is considered low. Below 85 and you might start thinking about checking into the ER for a COVID-19 test.

BY THE WAY: A reader emailed to tell me that you can get an oxygenation reading using an app on your cell phone. Don’t do it. I did a quick scan of the literature and phone apps got slammed pretty hard. If you’re going to bother with this at all, just buy a real one.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

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