As COVID deaths decline, Israel considers reimposing mask mandate

Israel’s Ministry of Health Wednesday announced it is considering reimposing the nationwide indoor mask mandate, which it had lifted in late April. 

Israel’s coronavirus commissar Salman Zarka made the announcement at a meeting of the Knesset Health Committee, citing rising cases as the impetus. On Tuesday, Israel saw 8,344 new infections, with a 7-day-average of 5,515. Zarka claims those numbers are only half of actual cases.

“The infection statistics are, it seems, the tip of the iceberg,” Zarka said, according to Israel National News. “I estimate that there are between 15,000 to 20,000 people infected each day.” 

“The BA.5 strain currently accounts for about 50 percent of patients,” he added. “The strain caused relatively mild illness among young people, but we can see a rise in hospitalizations.” 

But when it comes to deaths, even the Ministry of Health – notorious for its data manipulation – admits deaths have declined by 33.3%, with just six in the last week. 

The ministry’s dashboard is arranged by line graphs, which show various categories such as cases, deaths, hospitalizations, etc. Each graph contains a drop-down menu from which one can choose various data points, including last month, last three months, last six months, and so on. The graphs are preset to show data for over-60s by default, which are the most at-risk age group and show the most casualties. 

But when “under-60s” is chosen, the Health Ministry’s dashboard shows zero deaths in the last month. 

But not only does mortality not play a factor in Israel’s decision to re-impose mandates, neither does scientific evidence, which is why Zarka did not bother explaining why masks are likely to stop the spread of the new BA.5 variant. 

As reported extensively by America’s Frontline News, there have been two randomized controlled trial studies conducted on mask efficacy, neither of which support a mask mandate. One from Bangladesh showed that masks provide an 11% infection decrease for older people and no impact on younger people, and one from Denmark showed that masks have no effect on infections at all.    

Israel’s Health Ministry admitted to having no scientific data to support its mask mandate in a written response to a Freedom of Information request. The letter revealed that the Health Ministry imposed mask mandates to send an “educational” message to increase COVID compliance, knowing masks had “no strong scientific basis” before forcing them upon their populace on the pain of fines and police brutality. 

When attorney Oren Pasternak confronted the Health Ministry over their mask mandate – particularly for children – during a Knesset Health Committee hearing, the ministry simply refused to discuss it. 

“We’re not having a scientific discussion right now,” said Health Ministry Public Health Nurse Ilana Gans to Pasternak. 

Pasternak then began to ask why the Health Ministry is coercing Israeli citizens to wear masks if it has no real scientific basis for doing so. Gans only responded that there is research.  

“All medical decisions are based on exact data and all medical professionals in the world rely on evidence-based medicine...there is a lot of scientific research and you don’t need to teach us basic science and medical science.”  

“So present [the data],” challenged Pasternak again.  

But Gans sat back and fell silent.