Speaking specifically for Israel… because the ONE protest going on is several hundred people total but millions of Jews go to shul on Yom Kippur (and likely a million each Shabbat). The number of potential interactions at a protest is 437,000 on a national basis. But the number of potential interactions in shul on a national basis is 37,000,000… or nearly 100 times more. It’s worse for schools. So if you’re going to act like these are the only 2 things people do and pretend this is a zero sum game, then you limit the activity that is 100 times worse. Similarly, it is legal to drive 55 mph on a highway, though some accidents will occur, but it is not legal to drive 100 mph because the likelihood of accidents is many times worse.
The source of my statistics is publicly available and was published yesterday. My wife is a professor here in Israel whose doctoral students are doctors doing research and treatment for COVID-19.
Second, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, the Agudah, and pretty much every rav on Earth have said that not wearing a mask makes one liable for the death of others. Do we follow daas Torah only when it’s convenient? Or it doesn’t contradict a political talking point?