The US Is Doing OK on COVID-19 Vaccinations

Here, yet again, is the vaccination rate for the United States and a bunch of its peer countries:

Why do I keep posting charts like this? Because we’ve spent way too much time on doom and gloom about how incompetently we’ve rolled out the COVID-19 vaccine. With the well-known exception of Israel, we’re doing as well or better than anyone else. If we’re incompetent, then the entire world is incompetent.

Although different states have different issues, my sense is that in most states the real issue now is supply constraint—but this is, obviously, a manufacturing issue, not a government incompetence issue. On the government side of things, I’d like to see the FDA approve the Astra-Zeneca vaccine, which would help with supply bottlenecks, but obviously I don’t have the expertise to say for sure if this is a good idea. I guess we’ll know in a few weeks when folks in Britain either start keeling over from unanticipated side effects or they don’t.

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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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