Over the Bodies of Children: God Willing We'll Have Fun Tomorrow

by

Abby Zimet, Further columnist

Photo by Mahmoud Ajjour/Palestine Chronicle. Front photo: Screenshot of Ahmed and Sarah 

In the latest manifestation of a savage, years-long Gaza strategy they call “mowing the grass," Israel has now killed from the aloof air - often using U.S. made weaponry - at least 212 Palestinians, including 61 children, 36 women, two doctors, 10 members of one family and 17 members of another. They have also wounded over 1,200, left tens of thousands homeless, and reportedly targeted roads leading to the main hospital to prevent injured Palestinians from getting treated, thus brutally clarifying to a both-sides-beguiled media that, "THIS IS NOT A CONFLICT," but genocide. Among those killed without warning in attacks Sunday night were multiple generations of the al-Qawlaq family; the youngest victim, Qusay Sameh al-Qawlaq, was 6 months old, and the oldest was 84-year-old Saadiya Yousef al-Qawlaq. Two prominent doctors were also killed; so were 10 members of a family, including eight children preparing to celebrate the end of Ramadan: "They put on their Eid clothes and went to celebrate it with their uncle, just like any innocent children would do." For a resurgent Palestinian resistance, the slaughter again proves "no one is privileged, no one is safe" under an Occupation that is "trying to score a victory over the bodies of children." “War after war after war. Bombing after bombing after bombing. You build a house, they destroy it. You raise a child, they kill him,” says one traumatized survivor of the 2014 assault in the movie 'Killing Gaza.' "This struggle, before it (is) political or historical or ideological, (is) a struggle for our humanity."

 

Especially heartrending among Sunday's victims - is it possible to delineate a hierarchy of suffering? - was 34-year-old Ahmed Hatem Mahmoud Al-Mansi, who had just posted a popular video on his daughters' YouTube channel. Explaining his three children Malek, Hala and Sarah were traumatized by the carnage outside, Ahmed brings each sweet, smiling kid before the camera, gently mocking their sleep-tousled hair and announcing he's going to the market for them. "Hala is sad because of the shellings, so today I'm trying to please her," he says in an English translation. "I’m going to buy you some toys, God willing.” In the full version of the video, he records, despite the bloody havoc, the packed marketplace, vibrant crowds, store crammed with toys. A shorter version cuts to his arrival back home with his plastic treasure; the girls gleefully start in with it until the faint rumble of a plane sounds. "Don’t worry OK?” Ahmed says tenderly. “Keep playing.” But the girls scatter to the couch, eyes wide, pillows over their heads, and he tries to comfort them: "God willing, tomorrow we'll have fun." A couple of days later, a Twitter post said Ahmed and his brother Yousef, 22, were both killed in an airstrike; in a video, another brother Mohammed tearfully says he was recording the victims when he found his brothers were among them. The deaths were among many on a human rights group's long, grim list: "Yasmin Muhammad Khamis Abu Hatab, 31, and four of her children: Yusef, 11, Maryam, eight,  Bilal, nine, Yamen, six. The children's aunt Maha Muhammad Abdel-Al Abu Hatab, 35, and three of her children: Osama, six, Abdel and Suhaib, both 13." Another child, Yahya, 11, and several other victims were still missing under the rubble. In all likelihood, Israel won't have to "defend itself" against them anymore.

Looking for survivors. Photo by Ashraf Amra/APA

Tear-gassed protesters. Twitter photo.

Twitter photo

Photo by Mohammed Zaanoun/Activestills

Boy with body of a relative being transported. Photo by Mahmoud Ajjour/Palestine Chronicle

Ahmed and Sarah

'Criminal Complicity': Outrage as Biden Pushes $735 Million Weapons Sale to Israel Amid Gaza Slaughter

"Approving more weapons to Israel would add fuel to the fire and would only embolden Israel to continue its bombardments on Gaza."

by

Jake Johnson, staff writer

ts

Then-U.S. Vice President Joe Biden shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on March 9, 2010 in Jerusalem. (Photo: Avi Ohayon—GPO via Getty Images)

Human rights advocates warned Monday that the Biden administration is deepening U.S. complicity in the Netanyahu regime's ongoing massacre of civilians in Gaza by attempting to push through a $735 million sale of so-called "precision-guided weapons" to Israel.

"[The] Biden administration must be held accountable for being complicit in escalating the violence and failing to prevent civilian deaths and suffering."
—Jamil Dakwar, ACLU

The Washington Post reported Monday that the Biden administration officially notified Congress of the sale on May 5, just days before Israeli forces began their latest bombardment of Gaza last week—an assault that has killed nearly 200 Palestinians, wounded more than 1,200, and displaced tens of thousands.

Since last Monday, the Israeli military has used bombs and missiles made by major U.S. military contractors such as Boeing and General Dynamics to obliterate major buildings in Gaza, including one over the weekend that housed offices of the Associated Press and Al-Jazeera.

"Criminal complicity," Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian-American writer and political analyst, tweeted in response to reports of the sale, under which Boeing would provide Joint Direct Attack Munitions to Israel.

Freelance journalist Alex Kane warned that "those bombs will be dropped on Gaza if approved, as is likely."

THREAD: A case study in US complicity in Israel's massacre on Gaza. Al Jazeera investigation reveals GBU-31, GBU-39 and MK-84 bombs are being dropped on Gaza. All three of these weapons are made by American companies. https://t.co/fgjNZ1OZn6

— Alex Kane (@alexbkane) May 17, 2021

Speaking to the Post on the condition of anonymity, one Democratic lawmaker on the House Foreign Affairs Committee similarly cautioned that "allowing this proposed sale of smart bombs to go through without putting pressure on Israel to agree to a cease-fire will only enable further carnage."

While Democratic-controlled Congress has the power to block the weapons sale, it is unclear whether there would be enough support in either chamber to pass a resolution of disapproval, even as a growing chorus of progressive lawmakers expresses support for conditioning—and, if necessary, cutting off—the $3.8 billion in military aid the U.S. sends to Israel each year.

As the Post reported, one Democratic Senate aide said that "it's unlikely debate over the sale will ultimately result in a resolution of disapproval," which must pass within 20 days of the formal notification.

Jamil Dakwar, director of the ACLU's Human Rights Program, said Monday that "approving more weapons to Israel would add fuel to the fire and would only embolden Israel to continue its bombardments on Gaza."

"[The] Biden administration must be held accountable for being complicit in escalating the violence and failing to prevent civilian deaths and suffering," Dakwar added.

"Biden has a career-long record of defending Israel's worst crimes. And as president, he is now facilitating this murderous crime against humanity being committed by his 'great, great friend' Netanyahu."
—Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept

News of the sale came as the Biden administration on Sunday single-handedly blocked—for the third time in a week—a United Nations Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire, a proposal that the Netanyahu government has repeatedly rejected in recent days.

On Monday, according to the Associated Press U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken indicated that the Biden administration "still would not press for an immediate cease-fire" between Israel and Hamas despite mounting international pressure.

"Any diplomatic initiative that advances that prospect is something that we'll support," Blinken said during a press conference in press conference in Copenhagen. "And we are again willing and ready to do that. But ultimately it is up to the parties to make clear that they want to pursue a cease-fire."

Biden, for his part, has come under fire from progressives in the U.S. for refusing to condemn Israel's deadly attacks on Gaza and excusing the massive bombing campaign as an act of "self-defense."

"The world wants the killing to stop. The Biden administration does not," said political analyst and human rights advocate Omar Baddar. "Why? Because Israel doesn't want to stop the killing in Gaza, and Joe Biden and Secretary Blinken believe in unconditional support for Israel. This is disgusting and disgraceful, and a stain on our conscience."

In a column late last week, The Intercept's Jeremy Scahill wrote that on top of being "a nuclear power, armed with the most sophisticated and lethal weaponry imaginable," Israel "operates with a blank check of impunity bestowed upon it by its fiscal and military sponsor: the U.S. government."

"Biden has a career-long record of defending Israel's worst crimes," Scahill noted. "And as president, he is now facilitating this murderous crime against humanity being committed by his 'great, great friend' Netanyahu. This is all rooted in Israel's multidecade war of annihilation against the Palestinian people."

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'A Huge Loss': Israel's Killing of Top Doctors Further Strains Overwhelmed Gaza Health System

"I have not seen this level of destruction through my 14 years of work—not even in the 2014 war," said one emergency rescue official. 

by

Brett Wilkins, staff writer

Published on Monday, May 17, 2021

by

Common Dreams

A Palestinian toddler wounded in an Israeli airstrike receives care at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on May 16, 2021. 

(Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Gaza's medical infrastructure suffered a major blow on Sunday as two senior doctors died amid the ongoing Israeli bombing campaign that has killed at least 200 Palestinians and wounded more than 1,300 others in the coastal strip while straining a healthcare system already reeling from Israel's 14-year blockade.

"I have never seen anything like this in my life. There were body parts collected on hospital beds and unbearable scenes."
—Shaima Ahmed Qwaider, nurse

Dr. Ayman Abu al-Ouf, head of internal medicine at Al-Shifa Hospital, died with an unspecified number of relatives when Israeli missiles struck his family's home in the al-Wehda district of Gaza early Sunday. At least 33 people were killed in the attack, according to Al Jazeera.

Speaking about al-Ouf's death, former student and Al-Shifa colleague Dr. Osaid Alser told Al Jazeera: "It is a shock for me and for the entire medical community. He is one of the most senior internal medicine doctors in Gaza... That means a huge loss to the medical community."

Palestinian doctors perform funeral prayers for their colleague Dr Ayman abualouf the head of internal medicine at al Shifa hospital in Gaza. He was killed last night at his home in an Israeli air strike along with his 19 year old daughter. #غزة_الآن #GazaUnderAttackk1 pic.twitter.com/87XBCl9sxZ

— Ali Younes (@Ali_reports) May 16, 2021

Dr. Mooein Ahmad al-Aloul, a 66-year-old psychiatric neurologist, was also killed during the Israeli bombardment of al-Wehda on Sunday. His daughter Aya, who survived the attack, told The Guardian she was "lying awake chatting with a friend on WhatsApp while my mum and dad were sleeping, when suddenly the sound of the bombing started violently."

"Within a second it was black. I couldn't see anything, and I found myself on the ground in the street," she said. "There was a lot of concrete on top of me. My mother was next to me under a lot of rubble too."

"I got out and I tried to free my mother, but I could not," she added. "I ran until I found a street with lights on, and started screaming loudly. Then neighbors came and I asked them to get my mother out." The woman ultimately survived the attack. 

An Israeli airstrike in Gaza killed at least 33 people and a separate strike bombed the home of Hamas’s leader. The militant group Hamas also fired rockets into Israel, as the conflict continued into Sunday. https://t.co/IJvzpr0ZGI pic.twitter.com/ef40Mbsh0p

— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 17, 2021

Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of the global health organization MedGlobal, said that there was already a critical shortage of neurologists in Gaza before al-Aloul's death.

"People in this specialty are facing difficulties in Gaza because of lack of certain equipments that are required like MRI eyes and CT scans," Sahloul told Al Jazeera. "And some of the hospitals lack adequate training because they're not able to travel outside of Gaza. A loss of a neurologist is a huge loss in Gaza."

Jack Byrne, country director for American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), a U.S.-based humanitarian group supporting medical infrastructure in the region including in occupied Palestine, told Al Jazeera that doctors like al-Ouf and al-Aloul are "people whose expertise is badly needed in Gaza, where the blockade drives a brain-drain and prevents doctors from attending international conferences to learn about the latest advances in their field."

As was the case during Israel's 2008-2009, 2012, and 2014 assaults, Gaza's medical facilities are struggling to deal with the massive influx of patients resulting from Israel Defense Forces (IDF) attacks on densely populated civilian neighborhoods. Medical workers described the horrific carnage at hospitals and clinics.

“There are children who came torn apart.”

Doctors in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital are battling against shortages of medicine, equipment and power cuts to save patients critically wounded in Israeli air strikes. pic.twitter.com/c7yENGsLvK

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) May 14, 2021

"I have never seen anything like this in my life," Shaima Ahmed Qwaider, a nurse at Al-Shifa Hospital, told Al Jazeera. "There were body parts collected on hospital beds and unbearable scenes."

Samir al-Khatib, an emergency rescue official, concurred. "I have not seen this level of destruction through my 14 years of work—not even in the 2014 war," he said, referring to the Operation Protective Edge campaign that left over 2,100 Palestinians, including more than 500 children, dead and more than 10,000 others wounded. 

Another Al-Shifa nurse, Amal Badawi, added that "the hospital is filled with people and relatives. It was difficult to work and conduct the needed treatment in light of this overcrowding. The number of injured or killed is huge and they just keep arriving."

As well as wiping out whole families and bombing babies to death, Israel has systematically destroyed all the roads to Gaza City's al-Shifa hospital https://t.co/YhPs8YnSNP

— Asa Winstanley (@AsaWinstanley) May 17, 2021

This past weekend saw the deadliest IDF strikes of the weeklong Operation Guardian of the Walls; in addition to the al-Wehda bombing, at least 42 Palestinians—including a 1-year-old and 3-year-old—were killed in an airstrike in the upscale Al-Rima neighborhood of Gaza City early Sunday, according to The Times of Israel. 

The paper reports at least 10 members of the Abu Hatab familiy—most of them children—were also killed in a nighttime attack on a home in the city's Shati refugee camp late Friday night or early Saturday morning.

In addition to being inundated with wounded patients, hospitals and clinics—which were repeatedly attacked during past Israeli campaigns—have again been hit in IDF strikes. The international medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), also known as Doctors Without Borders, said Sunday's Al-Rima bombing damaged its trauma and burn care clinic in the neighborhood, forcing its closure.

Last night, an MSF clinic in #Gaza where we provide trauma and burn treatment was damaged by Israeli aerial bombardment, leaving a sterilization room unusable and a waiting area damaged. No one was injured in our clinic, but people were killed by the bombing. pic.twitter.com/Dwol0EPXEr

— MSF International (@MSF) May 16, 2021

"The situation has already been horrible this week, with the number of civilian casualties rising daily, but when I saw the damage to the area and the MSF clinic the morning after the attack, I was speechless," said Dr. Mohammed Abu Mughaiseeb, MSF's deputy medical coordinator in Gaza.

"Everything was impacted—houses, roads, trees," he added. "The clinic, where we see over 1,000 children a year with burn and trauma injuries, was missing a wall and debris was lying everywhere. The clinic is now closed not just because of the damage to its structure but also because the road to access it has been destroyed and the area is still unsafe."

World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said he was "highly concerned" by the escalating violence and its impact on efforts to combat the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in Gaza.

"The health situation is also highly concerning and in the recent escalation of conflict, dozens of incidents involving #healthworkers and health facilities have occured"-@DrTedros https://t.co/LsQpUTAuy6

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 17, 2021

Dr. Midhat Abbas of the Gaza Health Ministry said that even before the latest assault, the Israeli blockade left hospitals and clinics with serious shortages of medicine and equipment.

"We hope patients will be going to Egypt because our capacity is very limited," he told Al Jazeera. According to the outlet, Egypt has sent 16 ambulances into Gaza to retrieve wounded patients; a bus with 95 people aboard also arrived in Egypt from the embattled strip on Sunday morning. 

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National Nurses United Condemns CDC for Endangering Frontline Workers With Latest Covid-19 Guidance

"Nurses follow the precautionary principle, which means that until we know for sure something is safe, we use the highest level of protections, not the lowest."

by

Julia Conley, staff writer

Published on

Monday, May 17, 2021 

by

Common Dreams

Nurses affiliated with the group National Nurses United read the names of registered nurses who died during the coronavirus pandemic while demonstrating in Black Lives Matter Plaza May 12, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty)

The largest nurses' union in the United States is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revoke the guidance on mask-wearing and social distancing that the agency released last week, calling the significantly scaled-back guidelines "dangerous" as the U.S. and other countries continue to face the coronavirus pandemic and new variants of Covid-19.

National Nurses United (NNU) circulated a petition over the weekend, gathering signatures of Americans who were confused and alarmed by the CDC's new guidance, soon after the union released a statement condemning public health authorities for recommending that fully vaccinated people stop wearing masks and social distancing in most situations.

"This newest CDC guidance is not based on science, does not protect public health, and threatens the lives of patients, nurses, and other frontline workers across the country," said Bonnie Castillo, executive director of NNU and a registered nurse. "Now is not the time to relax protective measures, and we are outraged that the CDC has done just that while we are still in the midst of the deadliest pandemic in a century."

The union expressed particular concern for how the new guidance would leave public-facing workers including grocery store employees and healthcare workers vulnerable, as business establishments will have no way of making sure unmasked people are vaccinated against the coronavirus.

"People have been asking us, 'I don't understand. How am I going to know if the person next to me is not masked because they're fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, refuse to be vaccinated, have conditions that don't allow them to be vaccinated?'" said Jean Ross, co-president of NNU, in a video the group released Sunday. "Well, we share that confusion."

Get the real deal on the @CDCgov’s recently revised guidelines from National Nurses United co-president Jean Ross, RN.#ProtectNurses #WearAMask pic.twitter.com/rlvB8zWKw7

— NationalNursesUnited (@NationalNurses) May 16, 2021 

The CDC advised last Thursday that "vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance," noting that masking still applies to people who are traveling by plane or other public transportation. 

"People have been asking us, 'I don't understand. How am I going to know if the person next to me is not masked because they're fully vaccinated, partially vaccinated, refuse to be vaccinated, have conditions that don't allow them to be vaccinated?' Well, we share that confusion." —Jean Ross, NNU

NNU called on the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) to immediately issue emergency temporary standards (ETS) on infectious diseases, allowing workplaces to take extra precautions to protect their employees, including healthcare workers. 

"CDC issued this new guidance even though the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) emergency temporary standard mandated by President Biden's Jan. 21 executive order has been delayed for two months. This lack of protection compounds the dangers that nurses and other essential workers continue to face on the job," Castillo said. 

According to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 158 grocery store workers had died of the virus as of mid-April, and at least 35,100 workers have been infected or exposed.

Shortly after the CDC's announcement on Thursday, grocery and retail chains including Walmart, Publix, and Costco said they would lift mask mandates for people who are vaccinated—despite having no way to determine who has or hasn't received a vaccine.

"There has been so much inequity in the vaccine rollout and racial inequity in who is a frontline worker put most at risk by this guidance. The impact of the CDC's guidance update will be felt disproportionately by workers of color and their families and communities," said NNU co-president Zenei Triunfo-Cortez.

NNU denounced the CDC for failing to "fully recognize" how the coronavirus is spread—through aerosol transmission—and called on officials to "prioritize measures that prevent and reduce aerosol transmission (ventilation, respiratory protection, testing to identify asymptomatic cases)."

Under the new guidance, the CDC said it will no longer ask people to get tested for Covid-19 or to quarantine after a known exposure if they are asymptomatic. The guidelines follow a shift in strategy earlier this month in which the agency is no longer tracking "breakthrough" infections—those that affect people who are fully vaccinated—unless they result in hospitalization or death.

"This means that the CDC is no longer tracking data necessary to understand whether vaccines prevent asymptomatic/mild infections, how long vaccine protection may last, and to understand how variants impact vaccine protection," said NNU.

The union noted that the guidance was released as "variants of concern" are circulating in the U.S. and around the world, leading to fears that the virus could become more transmissible. Last week the World Health Organization (WHO) designated B.1.617, which was first detected in India late last year, as a variant of global concern.

WHO is still studying the variant's transmissibility and the response of coronavirus antibodies in people who have been vaccinated. 

"This pandemic is not over," said NNU co-president Deborah Burger. "Nurses follow the precautionary principle, which means that until we know for sure something is safe, we use the highest level of protections, not the lowest. The CDC is putting lives at risk with this latest guidance."

NNU was not alone in expressing alarm at the CDC's about-face. Last week the New York Times reported that hundreds of epidemiologists who have been interviewed by the newspaper recently about the precautions they've taken during the pandemic were surprised by the new guidance.

Out of 723 of the public health experts surveyed by the Times, 80% said they had expected Americans to be advised to continue masking in public indoor places for at least another year, while 88% said they believed people should still wear masks at large outdoor gatherings like concerts, even if they are vaccinated.

"Unless the vaccination rates increase to 80 or 90 percent over the next few months, we should wear masks in large public indoor settings," Vivian Towe, a program officer at the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, told the Times.

"Crowded circumstances, indoors or outdoors, necessitate a mask until community levels of Covid are much lower," Luther-King Fasehun, a doctor and an epidemiology Ph.D. student at Temple University, added.

Some public health experts, as well as the National Restaurant Association, also expressed alarm last week as the new guidance was released.

The National Restaurant Association and United Food and Commercial Workers union are united in criticizing the CDC’s new mask guidance for vaccinated people, per @Morning_Ag: pic.twitter.com/lFpXlu8mCa

— Leah Douglas (@leahjdouglas) May 17, 2021

KEEP WEARING THE MASK—We card-carrying epidemiologists (with formal doctorate in epidemiology) know what we are talking about. Vast majority of 700+ epidemiologists surveyed says we would keep wearing masks for 1 year or longer. #COVID19 #MaskUp

https://t.co/SukmEGeWO9 pic.twitter.com/gnn2gpLlFb

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) May 14, 2021

CDC guidance caught me by surprise, and my initial reaction was supportive, but the more I think about it, I wish they had said, "Let's do this on July 1. If you aren't vaccinated yet, this is your chance to go do it." Give people time to plan. https://t.co/i4jvbn40X1

— Linsey Marr (@linseymarr) May 14, 2021

NNU released its statement days after holding a public memorial and demonstration in Washington, D.C., where members of the union displayed hundreds of pairs of shoes to represent the more than 400 nurses who have died of Covid-19. The group also used the event to call on OSHA to issue an ETS to protect frontline workers.

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Nation's largest nurses union condemns new CDC guidance on masks

Tal Axelrod 
THE HILL

16/5/2021

The nation's largest nurses union condemned the new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that stipulates fully vaccinated people do not have to wear masks in most settings.

© Getty Images Nation's largest nurses union condemns new CDC guidance on masks

National Nurses United (NNU) in a statement Saturday said it was concerned that it would put patients, front-line workers and nurses at risk amid a pandemic that is still present in the U.S.

"This newest CDC guidance is not based on science, does not protect public health, and threatens the lives of patients, nurses, and other frontline workers across the country," said NNU Executive Director Bonnie Castillo. "Now is not the time to relax protective measures, and we are outraged that the CDC has done just that while we are still in the midst of the deadliest pandemic in a century."

"CDC issued this new guidance even though the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) emergency temporary standard mandated by President Biden's Jan. 21 executive order has been delayed for two months. This lack of protection compounds the dangers that nurses and other essential workers continue to face on the job," Castillo added.

The union specifically noted that more than 35,000 new cases are tallied daily in the U.S. and that fears linger over the spread of highly contagious variants.

The rebuke comes two days after the CDC said that people who are fully vaccinated no longer need to wear face coverings or practice social distancing.

The administration touted the guidance as a victory and a return to normalcy after more than a year of death and confusion.

"Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said during a White House briefing. "If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy."

The new guidelines do not apply in health care settings, correctional facilities or homeless shelters. People also will be required to follow local business and workplace guidelines.

In addition, Americans will still be required to wear masks in airports and while traveling on airplanes buses and trains.

However, major retailers and grocery stores such as Walmart, Trader Joe's, Costco, Publix and more have updated their mask policies following the guidance. Some have noted, though, that mask policies will differ in stores from state to state depending on their restrictions.