Reply To: Why do so many continue to ignore restrictions on gatherings and travel

Clearly, the non-compliant component of the tzibur is relatively small but the epidemiology of this virus tells us it doesn’t take more than a few carriers in a densely populated neighborhood to infect much larger numbers and thus we need nearly everyone to follow the rules. In more rural areas with considerably lower population densities, a non-compliant carrier shedding virus simply would not have the opportunity to infect ax many of his neighbors as might be the case in BB or Meah Shearim.
Again, this is NOT a unique issue to the Chareidi community as we saw with crowds on the beach persisting until early March. Also, as others have noted, after decades of disparaging anything coming of an “illegitimate’ tzionist government” and restricting their tzibur’s access to real time media information and guidance, there are probably a small fringe who are litterally unaware of the life and death consequences of the current virus outbreak”. Others may actually believe that are more at risk from missing davening from the minyan or not attending a levayah and sowing kovod ha’meis than from the virus.