the senate returns monday at three clock p.m. eastern -- at 3:00 p.m. eastern. members will vote on legislation to reform u.s. postal service operations and on the confirmation for the head of the fda for the second time. watch live coverage on c-span two, online at c-span.org or on our c-span now video app. journal" continues. host: joining us is "usa today" opinion columnist james bovard here to talk about the covid-19 response, the testing and politics. talk about the so-called freedom convoys along the u.s.-canada border. what is behind the sentiment and rationale for blockading the trade and traffic? guest: people have to recognize that the government of canada

blockaded those people's lives at first. the prime minister was basically trying to throw everybody out of work who refused to get the vaccination and of these people have responded, um, peacefully, mostly. and they are trying to make their point that the governor -- government cannot treat them like adults. and that is a sentiment that used to be widely supported, but for some reason the last couple years people forgot that individuals should have choices in their own lives. host: what do you think is happening at this stage of the pandemic? even blue state governors are saying it is time to lift the mask mandates, that we get to the point where children do not have to wear masks in schools or in public. guest: i have been impressed with how fast science has

progressed in the last couple weeks. the politicians have been saying, to follow the signs and data, but they did not tell us it was polling data. that has shown that people have lost patience with these government approaches, which have been command and control, and have failed to prevent covid. but we must act like the policymakers are wise and sacrosanct. people are fed up with this. people have sacrificed their freedom, in many cases their health, and the politicians misled them. and the bearcats misled them. host: what do you think of the mandates that were put in place for the vaccine? guest: i think that they are a travesty. i think they are a huge a violation of american freedom. if you look at how these mandates are working out, it

shows the absurdity of president biden's issuing and mandate for all health care workers to be vaccinated. you know, the problem with these policymakers saying that they are following the science was they have chosen to ignore natural immunity. again, we have had over 70 million people who have gotten covid, almost more than 69 million of them recovered. if you look at other cdc data that said only about one out of four cases are reported or diagnosed, that would be over 150 million americans who have had covid, almost 149 million surviving, but they have ignored natural immunity, the immunity that people have after they have the infection and recover. so with the health care mandate you had tens of thousands of nurses an other health care workers fired becaused they were not willing to get the injection.

and there was a shortage of health care workers. so the cdc said it was ok for hospitals to bring in covid infected nurses who had fevers and stuff like that, as long as they had been vaccinated. the vaccine did not work, it did not keep them safe, but it was ok to have them creating -- it's like the politicians want people to see vaccines as a holy water. and as long as it is not splashed around, it does not matter if people get sick. host: what should have been done then, if you disagree with mandating vaccines? guest: basic honesty would have been great the entire pandemic. you had president trump, president biden, both making false statements. a lo of the troublet goes back to the fda -- lot of trouble goes back to the fda, whose motto has been we have nothing

to hide for more than 75 years. the fda rushed through pfizer's vaccine application and are have been lawsuits trying to get access to the data that these admitted to the fda. the fda has said it will take them 75 years to fully release the information that they used to rush through the authorization of the vaccine. this is a joke. but there are so many jokes at every level in the pandemic. for instance, some might be offended by this, but i want to make it clear that following the california covid safety guidelines -- the nfc playoffs a couple weeks ago, governor newsom was there. he's had one of the most strictest mandates in the

country, kids have to wear them around the clock, indoor places you have got to have them. but governor newsom and the mayors were photographed not wearing masks at the football game, so governor newsom was challenged with it afterwards and he said it was not a problem because i had my face mask in my hand. he did not give us studies that show masks in your hand prevent covid transmission, but this is a standard of evidence, the standard of nonsense that politicians have been getting away with. host: we want to take your calls and thoughts on the politics of the pandemic response from the federal government over the last two years. our guest is "usa today" opinion columnist james bovard discusses sing the issue with us today. you can text us at 202-748-8003.

testing is something you have been critical about. the biden administration and trump administration. you wrote in one of your pieces, "at the start of the pandemic in 2020, president trump ludicrously proclaimed that anybody who wants a test, can get a test. that was baloney. despite promises in the meantime, it is still malarkey today. germany permits sales of more than 60 tests. germans can purchase tests for a dollar, while many americans cannot find or purchase a test at any price. " what happened? guest: the fda blocked the development and sales of the rapid diagnos tests in this country. it was a good example of the failure of the command and control in the entire pandemic. i got a call from my

dermatologist, he said, ok, you have got to have a negative covid test before coming in. and i say, where my supposed to get a negative covid test? he said, the postal service will be sending them. that is great, i have an appointment in three days and i will trust the postal service? the county government was proud to be passing out free covid tests, so i went down to the public library and i thought i would step in, stepped out, but it turned out that there was a line wrapping twice around the corners of the building. it was a bitter cold day on a friday afternoon and you had all of these people waiting in line to get a free covid test. and it was something that brought the memory from when i would travel to the east bloc and see long lines of east germans waiting to get there rations -- their rations.

what struck me was the people in line had no idea that they were stuck in line, squeezing through a small room to get there covid test with a bunch of other people who might be contagious. people did not realize that the reason that they could not go to cvs to buy a test for a dollar was because of the fda, which was located a few miles away from where they were waiting in line. there have been summoning government failures and snafus, and the politicians have not been held to account at all. and it is like although these false statements -- all these false statements have been swept under the rug. there has been so much collateral damage from the pandemic. i mean, the attorney general bill barr, he had a great line about the effect of the lockdowns. he said it was comparable to the big as a violation of civil liberties since the end of

slavery. people should not forget the businesses and lives destroyed in 2020 when politicians shut down everything, promising they would achieve zero covid. 70 billion plus cases later, zero covid and they destroyed all that. host: thomas from texas, an independent, welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. you said you had to stand in line for hours, now you know how it feels when we have to vote like that. you have a blockade in canada, don't you know there is food and groceries on those trucks? is somebody going to pay the farmers or stores? as far as the masks in schools. we have had thousands of school shootings. parents and shp