Keep in mind that their record day is 1.8 cases per 100k people. It will be interesting to observe that if they reinstate the indoor mask mandate and NO OTHER MITIGATION if there is a clear correlation to case reduction. However, they are starting so low that I'm not sure any conclusion will be reachable either way.
A clear correlation with masking would only be evident if everything else was constant, and masks were flicked on like a switch.
In other words -- If cases are flat, and you go from 0% masking to 100% masking, then you'd expect to see a clear evident reduction in cases.
But cases aren't flat -- They are accelerating. Mitigation measures, such as masking, is like tapping the brakes, not slamming on the brakes. If you tap the brakes while you're going downhill, the car will still accelerate -- just accelerate more slowly.
If you tap the brakes while the car is on a flat surface, the car will slow down. And if you tap the brakes while the car is going uphill, you'll stop pretty quickly.
So right now, Israel's cases are naturally accelerating. So if masks work, the acceleration would slow down, IF you had a big increase in masking.
But this takes us to the second factor -- Mask compliance. Even without a mandate, plenty of Israeli were continuing to wear masks indoors, at least sometimes. And even with a mandate, many Israelis will go about maskless, at least sometimes.
So bringing back the mask mandate won't drive masking from 0% to 100%. More like, maybe it drives masking from 40% to 50%.
So it's just a tap on the brakes. A tap on the brakes will help. But a tap on the brakes, alone, won't be enough to cause a reversal in case increases.
As far as this being an example of how to aggressively combat the virus, I would say that it really isn't accomplishing anything. Israel was down to practically no cases (the seven day rolling average hit a low of ten cases according to worldometers.info) and still they started to rise again.
The only way that COVID will be eliminated worldwide is if a high enough percentage of people become immune either through vaccination or natural infection. Even with their pretty high vaccination rate, Israel hasn't reached "enough" yet.
The point I agree on, is that Israel hasn't vaccinated "enough" to protect against Delta. Given they are similar in size, population and population density to several US states, they can be an interesting model for our future. '
It's widely acknowledged that low vaccination American regions may be in danger of surges. But as shown in Israel, even areas in the US that are doing well, still may not have done enough to fully protect from Delta. We need higher vaccination everywhere.
70% of adults was a good mile marker, but it shouldn't have been the end. We should be pursuing much higher than that. (which is why we should have enforced vaccine passports, but too late now).