June 23, 2020

Novak Djokovic Has COVID-19

Great tennis player, but maybe not the best guy to get COVID-19 advice from.Marko Dimic/Xinhua/ZUMA

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Novak Djokovic, the #1 tennis player in the world, has tested positive for COVID-19 after playing in a tournament in Croatia. Does this mean it’s still unsafe to hold tennis tournaments? Maybe, but then again:

During the tour, Djokovic and his guests had done all sorts of things that were normal before a global pandemic and completely cringe-inducing in the middle of one. They embraced at the net after matches. They played pickup basketball. They partied in a Belgrade nightclub, where videos show them limbo dancing, occasionally without shirts on and never wearing a mask.

Nick Kyrgios, the Australian hothead who’s constantly getting grief for his antics on court, responded quickly:

I think the bottom line here is that if normal precautions are taken and you don’t act like an idiot, tennis tournaments are probably pretty safe. But I guess we’ll find out in five weeks when New York hosts the world’s biggest tennis tournament.

POSTSCRIPT: I do, however, have a gripe about the Journal’s suggestion that Djokovic endangered himself by not wearing a mask. I see this all the time and it’s not true. Djokovic endangered everyone else by not wearing a mask.

Now, if the article had stated that Djokovic endangered himself by going to nightclubs where other people weren’t wearing masks—which is pretty likely, right?—that would have been completely correct.

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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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