Just kidding. We still don't control the weather, despite what some people think.

But seriously, it is about time the mask mandate was done away with. Hardly anyone was wearing the mask anyway and there was not much enforcement. 

The healthcare bigwigs are cautiously optimistic about this. Professor Mevurach of Hadassah Ein Kerem called this is a historic moment. Professor Gruto said he isnt sure we have completely done away with masks and if the numbers spike upwards again we might have to go back to them. Professor Zarka said we have not finished with the CoronaVirus but this is a happy respite - I wouldnt throw my mask away, but I would keep it in my pocket in case I go to a crowded place..

Just to comment on Professor Gruto's words - if it spikes upwards it would be hard to believe the cause would be identified as the removal of the masks, considering hardly anyone was wearing them anyway, but we still might have to go back to them in some official capacity because that is the only tool they have for the public, whether it works or not.

One day in the future we are going to look back at these past two years as a really strange and surreal blip in our history...

A lot of Corona rules have not made much sense. Sometimes it was fair, not enough information, too much confusion, people trying their best in a very difficult and unclear situation. 

But now? Why keep a mask mandate that is hardly being enforced and hardly being observed? Individuals are wearing masks indoors, and some public places require it though dont strongly enforce it. In most places the overwhelming majority of people are no longer wearing masks. Why continue a mask mandate that hardly anybody is keeping and that the government is hardly enforcing and that at this point in the pandemic is still nto even clear that it does anything?

The mandate should have been canceled. Just like the government has said, protect yourselves, we are not making lockdowns, the government should have said we are not requiring masks, if you want to wear one go ahead - be responsible and take your own precautions. 

Each and every one of them is a tragedy, especially for the family of the deceased, but also for their respective communities and for the nation in general.

That being said.

As we approached, and then hit the 10000th death, there were a lot of calls for introspection to see what we could have done differently, what the government should have done differently, to look at if the government is abdicating its responsibility to the people, if the green passport should have been canceled, etc.

I don't think that is fair. The vaccines have been available for anyone who wants them for a long time already. The government encouraged people to vaccinate and protect themselves. The government had a mask mandate in place to protect people who are vulnerable. The government set lockdowns and closures and limitations, and whatnot. For the past year or so, maybe even a little more, few people have been following the rules. Many people have refused to fully vaccinate. From what I read, most of the critically ill and dead of the past year were people not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated. That means they made a choice to not take the protection that was offered. Everywhere I go most people are not wearing masks, and havent been for many months, unless they are absolutely forced to (such as in many supermarkets still) and even then they try to get away with as much as possible after walking through the door and passing inspection. The green pass was only enforced in few places, if at all, and many people refused to play along with it at all.

We can go on and on, but at the end of the day the governments of Israel, the current one and the previous, have done pretty much everything they could to protect the people from getting sick and dying, but the people largely refused to play along, after a certain point. The government can only do so much, and we each have personal responsibility as well to keep ourselves and those around us safe. If we the people won't fulfill our responsibilities, that is on us, not on the government.

People just like to complain and blame the government, no matter what policy they put in place. If they are strict on restrictions, we complain about overreaching government impinging on our freedoms, if they are too lax then we complain that they arent protecting us.

10000 deaths is a tragedy but the government does not bear all the blame, if any. It can be shared equally among us all, including some on the government, and mostly on the victims and those immediately around them.

ADDED:

I just saw this caricature cartoon and think it is very appropriate

I dont know where this was originally posted but he guy who posted it with the comment on twitter claims it has been confirmed as real by the NJ Department of Health

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On a recent United Airlines flight from Newark to Tel Aviv, a couple of unruly Israeli passengers made a ruckus insisting on self-upgrading their seats to some empty seats in business class, against the instructions of the flight attendants. Refusing to back down while insisting on staying in the business class seats, the crew made a decision to turn the flight around and head back to Newark. The unruly passengers were supposedly arrested upon arrival in Newark. By that time the flight could not continue, and supposedly the rest of the passengers were to be taken care by being put in hotels with food and arrangements made for continuing the trip on alternate flights.

Just the day before this incident an American Airlines flight to London had been turned around due to a passenger refusing to comply with the mask mandate. 

There is no indication that this passenger on the American Airlines flight was an Israeli or a Jew so it seems safe to say that there are idiots and inconsiderate people from a variety of communities and societies who are willing to inconvenience an entire plane-full of passengers for the point they want to make..

I dont know what any of these people are thinking when they do this? As important they think the demand they are making is, have they been living under a rock for the past 2 years, or 20 years (since September 11, 2021)? How do they think they can get away with such behavior on airplanes nowadays? What do they think is going to happen - they are going to be the one person who gets away with it and stands up to THE MAN successfully on an airplane and wins?

While some think this is a sign of how messed up everything regarding the testing system is right now, I see it as the wonders of WIFI and the new "Smart" testing system (smart as in smart home, smart appliances, with all sorts of devices connected to the Internet). They are testing for corona via wifi using smart tests!

We have truly arrived at the future!

  -- Former MK and former Minister Chaim Ramon

Chaim Ramon is not particularly influential nowadays, so his call for more limitations on the unvaccinated as is being done in France is almost meaningless. The only thing that gives his call any credence is the fact that journalist Amit Segal just called for the same level of regulations against the unvaccinated as is being done in France. Segal has significantly more influence today than Ramon.

This government decided on a different approach, finding a way to live with CoronaVirus without lockdowns except in extreme situations. It seems to me people just want to complain about the government, which is also fine. Lockdown - complain and adhere as little as possible, no lockdown - complain.

Either way, the government has failed from a public perspective with its lack of transparency and clarity and changing the rules so frequently that people cannot keep track of what current rules are at any given time, besides for many of them not making much sense. If the government wants the people to cooperate better and participate more in the fight against CoronaVirus, the rules need to be clear and explained well to the public, and they should make some sort of sense. If you want people to buy in to the system, they need to know what they are buying in to.

Take advantage and come visit, before the airport gets shut down again!

MK Tzvika Hauser (Kachol Lavan) has proposed a law that would give a parent the day off of work with pay, counted as an official sick day, for a day in which the parent vaccinated a child against CoronaVirus.

The law proposal today passed in its initial reading in the Knesset and will now be prepared for further readings and passage.

Between days off and in some places being paid to vaccinate each kid, I think it might be time to have more children....

 

Rol was seen dancing at a crowded party on Shabbos (a New Years party), and has now tested positive for CoronaVirus.

People need not be fired for catching a virus but as a member of the government, Rol has a responsibility to the government and to the public that he violated. The government is busy trying to fight a virus and to do that is setting all sorts of rules and restrictions on the public. Members of the government cannot be publicly violating those laws.

Back in August and September, people were extremely critical of PM Naftali Bennett because it first looked like he was not imposing tight restrictions in Israel despite an outbreak and then critical for not having set restrictions and leaving everything open over the holidays.

Now, with another outbreak seemingly on its way, possibly the 5th wave, Bennett is looking at possibly setting restrictions, with some already in place and more possibly on the way, yet people are extremely critical of this now calling him hysterical.

Now, we know most people won't keep to most restrictions anyway, and enforcement has always been relatively light. The airport and air travel is the exception because people really dont have a way around that, but internally within Israel, there is very little following of the rules.

So people are upset when he leaves things open and call him irresponsible, and people are upset when he sets restrictions, calling him hysterical.

Considering it is all the same news outlets and social media that I normally read both then and now, it is presumably also the same people, more or less.

I think people just like to complain and be critical. No matter what he does (or any government, for that matter - not just because Bennett isnt overly well liked by a good portion of the population), people will be critical. 

Omicron seems to spread much faster though it also seems that the virus affects are lighter than previous variants.

So, with a million Israelis getting infected each day, with a relatively light virus (one that we cannot really stop), we should be out of this mess within a month or so. Over a million Israelis have already gotten infected over the past couple of years. With just over 9 million Israelis, the last 8+ million should get infected within about 27 days from now, or so. When everyone has had it, it should mostly be over. There might be some getting it for the second time, but most so far do not.

I guess this was an optimistic prediction!

While I might be wrong, I don't think have yet seen any evidence that this variant is any more dangerous than any previous variant or than the original version of the virus. It seems to spread a bit faster and easier, but it doesnt seem to be killing masses of people.

In my opinion, at this point in time of COVID, I think countries (with possible exceptions) should mostly just open everything up and get back to normal. Vaccines, shown to be mostly very effective, are available for pretty much anyone who wants to be vaccinated, and the people who do not want to be vaccinated are not changing their minds and feeling pressured because of closures.

Open everything up and let people decide for themselves whether to get vaccinated or not, to go out or not, to go to public events or not. 

The issue, according to INN, quoting Yediot Achronot, is that this group of 5 South African Jews were banished to a waiting room in the airport and then put on a flight to Dubai. This forced them to desecrate the Shabbos by flying on Shabbos.

One passenger spoke saying that she felt they were treated like criminals and she was told she would be arrested if she did not board the plane. They were not allowed to ask questions and were given nothing to eat. 

As I have said many times, Israel is not a religious state, even though it has a, even sizeable, religious community. Israel identified a serious risk, of a new variant entering Israel - Shabbos was not at the front of its concerns. I dont find that shocking at all, even though of course it was troubling to the people affected. I continue to not understand why people have religious expectations of a government that is not religious. Sure, it is nice when our religion is taken into account and given consideration, and that happens often enough, but religion is not the main concern of the Israeli government. 

What is somewhat shocking is that they refused to give them anything to eat and refused to answer questions. There is no reason the Ministry of Health, or whatever body is responsible for this, cannot have a representative to talk to such groups of people and explain what is happening and why it is necessary. 

It seems that despite the Ministry of Education's permission to learn remotely in kollel, the inspectors have continued their work as normal and have disciplined kollels for lack of attendance, even when the kollel claims some of its members are learning remotely, with permission.

MK Uri Maklav (UTJ) raised this issue in the Knesset, appealing to the Minister of Education, Yaffa Shasha Biton, to act on the permission granted and stop the inspections or change them to include the distance learning and to stop disciplining affected kollels.

Shasha-Biton responded that she would look into the matter.

source: Kikar

with schools and academies the distance learning is done over zoom or other video conferencing software. Attendance is taken. Tests are given. Work is given. How does distance learning in kollel work? I am asking because I truly don't know. I know how the regular schools and academies worked because I have kids in them. 

The schools and academies have all gone back to regular learning a long time ago. I am surprised to hear that kollels are still doing distance learning, especially considering the more formidable challenges for distance learning int he Haredi community, with so many not having access to computers and Internet.

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Mind you, this is someone I know, not a total stranger, but we aren't chummy or best friends. Just acquaintances. 

So he comes back and asks me if I am vaccinated. Mind you, I don't know if he wanted me to say yes or no (though I have my suspicions). Ok, not too bad - maybe because I am waiting to get on a bus. I was not wearing a mask but holding one for when I would get on the bus. Maybe he was curious if I am not wearing the mask because I am vaccinated or if I am going to wear a mask because I am not. 

I answered his question, but that was not the end. He asked me if I vaccinated my kids. I answered his question saying those who are young enough and still under our care but qualify for the vaccine were vaccinated, though we still have one too young and not yet qualified, so some are and some aren't.

He then asked if we will vaccinate her or not when they open it for children (likely very soon). I answered that I do not yet know, we havent really discussed it, but we would likely first ask our doctor what he thinks before making any decision. He asked who our doctor is and I told him and he was happy because that doctor is know as being cautious and not rushing kids to get the vaccine but he waits a bit. I only now just realized that it is irrelevant because this child is recovered from a recent bout of Corona and probably cannot even get the vaccine yet. He seemed satisfied and continued on his way.

A woman standing nearby asked me if that conversation was really unsolicited, and was shocked that this fellow would stop people in the streets and ask questions like that (though to be fair, she did not know that he knows me somewhat and maybe she thought we were "just two strangers passing in the night".

I was a bit shocked that he would ask me all this like that. As mentioned, we are not good friends, just acquaintances. And we weren't having a conversation about it or anything else that he felt it appropriate to ask. I answered because I have nothing to hide so why not.

Very weird.

ok, there is a movement to only deal with shidduchim of non/anti vaxxers but turning down an organ donation????