Coronavirus Growth in Western Countries: September 1 Update

Here’s the coronavirus death toll through August 31. The raw data from Johns Hopkins is here.

But before we get to that, something else first. Deaths from COVID-19 are close to zero throughout Europe, but over the past few weeks there’s been a worrisome surge in cases. The biggest surge is in Spain, which is also seeing a rise in mortality, followed by France—which, oddly, isn’t, even after six weeks of rising cases. Italy’s case count is also on the rise, though at a lower pace.

It’s hard not to draw a grim conclusion from this: nearly any loosening of social distancing rules, even in places where the virus has been crushed, will lead to an outbreak of new cases. And if there’s an outbreak of new cases, eventually there will be an outbreak of new deaths too.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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