July 8, 2020

Raw Data: Did Trump’s Tulsa Rally Cause COVID-19 to Take Off?

Did Donald Trump’s rally in Tulsa cause the rate of COVID-19 cases to skyrocket? Here’s the raw data:

Maybe. But an eyeball look at this chart sure seems to suggest that Tulsa has followed the same trendline before and after the rally. The city has no mask requirement, nor does it have any ban on large gatherings, of which there have been quite a few in addition to Trump’s.

Holding an indoor rally while the case rate was increasing was surely a dumb thing to do, but based on the numbers alone it’s hard to say for sure what impact it had.

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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.

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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.

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