c-span now. >> there are a lot of places to get political information but only at c-span, do you get it straight from the source. no matter where you are from or where used in on the issues, c-span is america's network, unfiltered, unbiased, word for word, it happens here or here or here or anywhere that matters. america is watching on c-span powered by cable. media sites, just remember cspan wj. it was two years ago, april 3, 2020, that the mask recommendation came out from the cdc. here is an npr article from april 3, 2020, cdc now recommends americans consider wearing cloth face coverings in the public.

president trump said friday that the centers for disease control and prevention now recommends that people were cloth or fabric face coverings, which can be made it home, when entering public spaces such as grocery stores and public transit stations. it is mainly to prevent those people who have the virus and might not know it from spreading the infection to others. the guidelines do not give them -- give many details about cloth coverings, besides saying it they can be made it home from common materials at low costs and used as an additional voluntary public health protection. that was 2020. this is from april 10 this year, covid cases hits dcs nationwide rise looms. speaker nancy pelosi and cabinet members, including merrick garland, and a string of

lawmakers have tested positive in recent days. the cases are reminders that the virus is still circulating, even as much of america moves forward from the pandemic. experts are bracing for cases to increase in the coming weeks given an even more highly transmissible subvariant of omicron known as ba.2 that is circulating widely. that is from the hill. the question is if you are willing to return to wearing a mask. you will see the numbers on the bottom of your screen. we will get your calls in just a second. this is from the daily mail out of london, that the english national health service chiefs called for a return of masks and limits on indoor mixing as they accuse government of abandoning interest in covid and warned of brutal easter as infections hit record levels in the u.k.

lisa in coral springs, florida, are you willing to put a mask back on or have you not taken one off at all? caller: i have not taken it off. i do believe the masks really help. so i continue wearing it. i will continue wearing one. host: and what do you think it does? caller: i think it is reducing the uptick of the virus spreading, and along with the vaccine. that really helps or we would have been in a worse situation in the u.s. so with masks, i just agree with it, like it has really helped. host: have you had all the vaccines? caller: yes, i have two and a booster. host: are you in the minority at this point when it comes to wearing a mask in florida?

caller: i believe so, based on the number of people i see without masks. host: thank you for calling in this morning. emma right here in d.c., are you willing to put a mask back on? caller: i am not. i think this needs to end. we have been through a horrible ordeal for two years. we need to grieve everything we have been through and just have a clear demarcation and say this is over or at least it is manageable. we need to get back to life, to living, and these masks cannot be going. ridiculous. host: what was your experience over the past two years when it came to masks. were you willing to wear one? caller: yes, i wore one in the store, the grocery store, and all that, but i think we need to get back to living. i spent a year and a half sitting in an apartment alone. this has to end at some point. life needs to go on. host: thank you, ma'am.

we are going to continue to take calls. this is the washington times this morning, cases offer template for living with virus. america is getting a sneak peek of what living with covid means, live and direct from the white house. infections within president biden's circle are becoming a daily occurrence, but the white house is forging ahead with business as usual. we lean heavily on cdc guidance that eased mask wearing except for the limited definition of who might be a close contact of mr. biden or vice president kamala harris at official events. it goes on to say that there is infections in washington and it has been over a year since a similar event in the trump administration, is super-spreader, and it is a real-time gamble on mr. biden who tapped his presidency on the idea he could tackle the pandemic.

next call is from debbie in flint, michigan. with you be willing to put a mask back on? caller: good morning to you. i really have not taken it off full-time, but i am one of those people that has comorbidities. it has really helped with me. i have copd, and for five years before the last two years, i got emphysema and was on prednisone a couple times every winter, because up here in michigan, we have brutal winters and i was working, because i had to go out when it was 10 degrees, 20 degrees, and it just kills your lungs. and it helped. but more than that, peter, i look at this as a patriotic issue. i have been pretty shocked as how many americans just are selfish and say, you know, i do not care about my fellow american. all i care about is me. they did not care about the teachers and the schools. everybody is still like, oh, we don't want these kids to wear

masks. this could get a whole lot worse. this is a pandemic. i just don't get what people are thinking, peter. host: thank you for calling in, debbie. this is the wall street journal, their lead editorial this morning. states of covid performance. more than two years into the covid-19 pandemic, and is time to draw some conclusions about government policy and results. the most conference of comparative study we have seen to date was published last week as a working paper by the national bureau of economic research, and it deserves wide attention. the authors at the university of shockoe -- chicago and a member of the committee to at least prosperity, they compared covid outcomes in the 50 states and district of columbia based on three variables, the economy, education, and mortality. it is a revealing study that belies much of the conventional

medical and media wisdom during the pandemic, especially in its first year when severe lockdowns were described as the best and the only moral policy. and of course, this is a conservative group that has put this out, but the article goes on to say the top 10 states in the rankings are smaller states with a notable exception, florida, which ranked sixth. it recalls how the sunshine state's decision to open itself relatively soon after the first lockdown was derided as cruel and destructive. governor desantis was called governor death sentence. the study ranks florida 20th in mortality, in the middle of the packet, and about the same as california, which ranks 27, despite far more stringent lockdowns and school closures. but florida ranks third for leased education loss and 13 and the economic performance. california ranks 37th overall because it crush the economy and

in-person schooling. so florida did about average on motility as other states, but it did far better in protecting its citizens from severe economic harm and its children from lost schooling. that is the wall street journal this morning. ernestine in oak hill, west virginia. are you willing to put a mask back on? caller: i have never stopped. host: ok, why? caller: i am over 50 -- in fact, i am 89. i have comorbidities. in fact, i have always worn an n95. i will not stop when i go out into public. host: would you say you will not stop if there is -- is there anything that would make you stop? it will be here with us for a while. caller: yes, if it is -- if our

area shows reduced contact and death send what have you, i probably would. but i am concerned about my health because of the age. i would like to live to be 91, or older, like my family has. host: thank you for calling in. catherine in san diego, are you willing to put a mask back on? caller: hello? host: are you willing to put a mask back on? caller: oh, hi. my name is kathy, my nickname, and i do not believe the mask helps with viruses at all. i remember basic science when i was in high school, and i went to college also, and the

molecule for a virus is so tiny, so small, that it is going to go where it wants to go, go through 10 masks, go through 50 masks. with bacteria, sometimes we need to wear masks because of bacteria, like they do when they operate so they do not cough or breathe on someone because of the bacteria. that is a different story. the molecules are so small. when you're talking about a virus, that is so small, it is going to go anywhere it wants to go. masks are not going to help, never have. i hate to say people have been brainwashed because it sounds like i am some kind of a not, but i am not. i care for people and and trying to tell people, and since will tell you that it will not help you, but if you want to wear a mask, it is a free choice. host: so what is the situation in california when it comes to mask-wearing?

are most people still wearing them? caller: i would say no. some people do, some people don't. and i would say that it is a liberal state, but people are waking up and realizing that the masks are not working and also the vaccinations are not working. first they wear masks about what the heck, but it is now two years, three years, and there waking up here this is not working out. host: april 18, the faa is reviewing whether or not to continue the mask mandate on airplanes. what do you think? caller: i think that they help with maybe bacteria, but they are not going to help with viruses. host: thank you. david is in monticello, georgia, on the no line, too. you are not willing to put a mask back on, huh?

caller: no, i am not. i am an electrician, and we have an medication team that did at one time recommend masks. however, i am in an industry where i have been exposed to a lot of toxic chemical. we had to try everything through the years to keep ourselves safe and not have long-term effects from what we are exposed to. i have been a safety manager, social director, and our primary focus for safety in our industry is protection. so i had to dive into it from

safety protocols. but one class that i took really opened my eyes several years ago. what we were dealing with becomes atomized and the masks we are using, we tried n95 and all of them, and very expensive sometimes, nothing helped. nothing was safe. and we went to a lot of respirators with charcoal filters. well, they did not help either in some situations. in studying it, one thing we recognized is every one of these packs or boxes of masks says not to be considered protection, as

it just claimed. there is a reason for that. host: so for the last two years when there were indoor mask mandates, where you willing to wear one? caller: i had to. and i looked at it like, well, if someone feels better that i wear a mask, i do that. like most christians, i am trying to be helpful. but i'm 64 years old and have copd, and my comorbidity, if you want to call it that, but to dive further, i have not taken any of the vaccines or boosters, but i have never gotten a blue -- flu vaccine and have never gotten the flu. host: you mentioned you were an elected official. can you identify what position? caller: in our city council. and i followed all the rules

when the medication team decided. -- when the mitigation team decided. i did that. but i have a little more knowledge than most folks. it is curious to me, because these masks do not work. host: thank you. janice, mckeesport, pennsylvania. are you willing to put a mask back on, if mandated? caller: yes, sir, i am. it has been about six months, seven months since i have had a heart attack, and i was late in getting the covid -- well, i had the first shot. and my children are against the masks. and i have mixed feelings about

that. and i'm willing to put it back on again to protect myself. but i think it is more of a deeper problem across the united states and it would go to the risk factor that the person has, as well as the community, and the professions that the people have, like our nurses, our ems, you know. i would be more than welcome to tell them to protect themselves and to put that mask back on. although if you are a daughter of the american revolution or a son of liberty, a trucker, it is going to be a different story. host: have you been avoiding

crowds replaces where people are maskless? host: yes, i have. my sister and i, we do our shopping, and we usually wear a mask. but then i suddenly got away from that because there was so much hoopla on both sides that i finally faced my sister and my brother and said, well, we have got to protect ourselves. and that is where the bottom line is. and we are retired, and we are along fine. there it is, you know. host: thank you for watching and calling in this morning. howard in fort lauderdale, what do you think, would you be willing to put a mask back on? caller: good morning, and no.