Second Chance

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.  This June, as I packed for a trip to London, I realised I couldn’t find a single mask in my house, nor in any of the stores by my house in Tel Aviv. It had been months since anyone had needed one in Israel, one of the fastest- and most-vaccinated nations in the world. By mid-March, Israelis were partying as lockdowns ended and by April, masks had more or less vanished, turning the tiny country into a tantalising glimpse of a post-pandemic future. “Why do you want a mask? Corona is over,” chuckled my neighbourhood grocery store grandma, as she handed me a half-empty bag of masks she found in the back as I rushed to the airport. A month later, as I returned from London after my own bout of Covid-19 — one of the earlier breakthrough cases of the fully vaccinated catching the Delta Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.  This June, as I packed for a trip to London, I realised I couldn’t find a single mask in my house, nor in any of the stores by my house in Tel Aviv. It had been months since anyone had needed one in Israel, one of the fastest- and most-vaccinated nations in the world. By mid-March, Israelis were partying as lockdowns ended and by April, masks had more or less vanished, turning the tiny country into a tantalising glimpse of a post-pandemic future. “Why do you want a mask? Corona is over,” chuckled my neighbourhood grocery store grandma, as she handed me a half-empty bag of masks she found in the back as I rushed to the airport. A month later, as I returned from London after my own bout of Covid-19 — one of the earlier breakthrough cases of the fully vaccinated catching the Delta Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service.  This June, as I packed for a trip to London, I realised I couldn’t find a single mask in my house, nor in any of the stores by my house in Tel Aviv. It had been months since anyone had needed one in Israel, one of the fastest- and most-vaccinated nations in the world. By mid-March, Israelis were partying as lockdowns ended and by April, masks had more or less vanished, turning the tiny country into a tantalising glimpse of a post-pandemic future. “Why do you want a mask? Corona is over,” chuckled my neighbourhood grocery store grandma, as she handed me a half-empty bag of masks she found in the back as I rushed to the airport. A month later, as I returned from London after my own bout of Covid-19 — one of the earlier breakthrough cases of the fully vaccinated catching the Delta