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1. a year and a half wasted being careful and following the guidelines pretty carefully. I got it anyway. Now I kind of wish I had gotten it earlier on so I would have had less concern throughout..

2. I really enjoyed not getting dressed for 10 days. The hardest part of being released was having to get dressed.

3. Some people love to go out - socialize, do things, etc. I go out to do work and errands, but besides for that I like to stay in. 10 days staying in was a breeze.

4. I was somewhat disappointed with the Misrad Habriyut and with the kupat cholim. I did not get the sense that anybody was on top of things. Nobody really checked in on us. They called the first days each person tested positive and that was mostly to go over where we had each been in the previous days and with whom we might have been in contact and to calculate how long isolation would be. The rest of the time, almost no contact. I got an sms letting me know I am released from quarantine, but nobody first spoke with me to confirm anything about symptoms or how I am feeling. I guess they relied on a survey I filled out a couple of days ago and trust I was not lying. I did not lie, but I find it hard to believe there aren't a lot of people lying or fudging the general questions.

5. At one point a kupa doctor called to ask how I am feeling. Nobody called to check on any of the other family members that tested positive. I was basically asymptomatic but someone else in the family was sick. Not deathly sick, but sick. When the doctor called for me, I said I am fine but someone else is sick. Doc wanted to speak to that person, who was very weak at the time and could hardly talk, but he said he needs to hear the person talking and breathing. After the conversation the doctor simply said the patient does not sound like she needs a hospital so that's it. What about other treatment? We could not go to a doctor or to the local health clinic because we could not leave the house, and they did not want us to come in, for obvious reasons. The doctor would not prescribe over the phone without being able to diagnose anything. All we could do if necessary would be to go to the hospital and waste many hours for an unnecessary hospital visit.  The doctor above also did not call back a couple of days later to follow up or check in on us again. We could have been laying here dying and nobody would have known about it until we would maybe show up in the hospital.

I think that the kupot cholim in every city or region should have a team of doctors to make house calls or have clinics open specifically for corona patients to get basic treatment. not everyone needs to go to a hospital, but they still might need treatment for other things or for side effects that need relief. The doctors would be vaxxed or recovered and obviously would only go in protected with PPE, and it would be doctors willing to deal with these patients. 

6. There is a tzadekes in RBS that is a nurse or PA, I am not sure what her actual position in real life is, and she goes around checking on people. Someone told us to call her and we did. She came several times, gave medicine and vitamins and checked on us and gave us guidance. At one point she felt it necessary and told us about a doctor we could hire privately to come make a house call, which we did, and it was a big help. We took care of ourselves privately, but the kupat cholim or Ministry of Health should have been checking up on us and seeing what we might need and if we need any medical attention. Again, I get the feeling that we could have been laying here dying and nobody would have known unless we showed up in the hospital by our own forces.

7. We could have been walking around the neighborhood or city or country, like many others, spreading the infection, as nobody checked in on us. No enforcement at all. 4 people in the house tested positive plus some other quarantines overlapped. maybe they know who is responsible to keep the rules with no need to check up on and they only check in on the people they know might break the rules or aren't sure about. I don't know but it seemed kind of hefker. 

8. I figure now between having 3 doses of the vaccine plus natural antibodies as well, I must be like superman by now.

Shana tova and have a good and healthy year

  -- Prime Minister Naftali Bennett

This is funny and true. I expected no lockdown. I do not believe there was ever a serious threat of a lockdown. This government's approach, for good or for bad, has been clearly to try to find a way to leave the country open. A lockdown did not make sense, and the pressure for it publicly only came from people who had no intention of adhering to it anyway. A lockdown for Sukkos also does not make sense, so I am not overly impressed by his warning, but I do agree that the more people follow the guidelines, the better off we will be.

Additionally, the funny part is in saying "continue following the guidelines". Almost nobody is, so I don't know who should continue doing so...

At the end of the day, good job in preventing a lockdown. I wonder if anyone who has been criticizing Bennett and his peers for the past 5-6 weeks about the possible lockdown coming will now praise him for not locking anything down. Everyone screaming over the past month about possible restrictions in travel to Uman while all other travel is open - will they praise him for allowing travel to Uman almost unrestricted?

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A Chassidic couple kayaking through the streets of Brooklyn

I just wonder why they owned a kayak in Brooklyn...

great date night activity

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Of course people are all huffy about this requirement saying that on other flights vaccinated/recovered people do not need to get tested before flying.

I dont know what the current rules are for travel to any specific place but back at the end of June and early July  to travel to the USA I had to take a negative PCR test within 72 hours of my flight to the USA. Despite being vaccinated. So people should just stop complaining, go do what they need to do and go where they want to go. yes, these are the rules and many people have to do seemingly unnecessary or unhelpful procedures to travel to where they want or need to go right now. They make rules and the rules apply across the board even if they do not always make sense. Especially now when vaccinated people are also catching the CoronaVirus, even if not getting seriously ill - they will still spread it. With a lot of Uman pilgrims likely not vaccinated, that could spell danger without testing.

That being said, the most egregious aspect of this, I think, is that this decision is being made last minute. There is hardly any travel time left to go to Uman. Rosh Hashana is Monday night. there are only a few travel days left. Anyone wanting to go to Uman that has not yet gone will have to get tested either today or tomorrow, to get results back in time for the trip, and anyone traveling today or tomorrow likely wont be able to get the results back fast enough. Most Uman pilgrims are likely already there, as it is already fairly close to Rosh Hashana, so this new rule will only affect a relatively small percentage of the pilgrims. Making these decisions last minute just makes it harder for people to plan, harder for people to follow the rules, and harder for people to willingly comply. Had the decision been made a week or two ago, maybe people would be grumbling less.

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covid is really a dybbuk? this is just weird

  -- MK Uri Maklev (UTJ)

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