May 23, 2020

Coronavirus Growth in Western Countries: May 22 Update

Here’s the coronavirus death toll through May 22. Spain suddenly reported 688 deaths on Friday, causing a big spike in their death toll. France, conversely, reported zero deaths. I’m not sure what’s going on here. All the other countries are mostly on track, and even the two sets of numbers for Sweden are starting to look similar (with an expected lag of a few days). The United States has dropped below four deaths per million, which surprises me. This either means that the lockdown protocols have been more effective than I guessed, or that the lockdown protocols didn’t really matter at all. My money remains on the former.

The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here. The Public Health Agency of Sweden is here.

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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.

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