who are unvaccinated. vaccines still work. vaccines still work. and masks still work. we are hearing more and more calls to bring back some sort of mask mandate or mask guidance. the administration is not doing that. it s seen as a political hot potato, even though recent polling from data for from progress we are putting it up on screen shows 56% of americans either strongly or somewhat support indoor mask in public places to prevent a surge in covid cases. does that percentage surprise you? because we always told, oh, people don t want to wear masks anymore. and should people be masking now in your view? it does surprise. me and thank you for sharing that data. it is reassuring. and i really think that peoples expectations, to take a step back here. vaccines, for example, will protect you for, say, 4 to 5 months, just like the flu vaccine, the covid vaccines, for a brief period. against the hospital we made the masks to your point, mehdi, we have just gotten over a surg
how if you have some ideas that you think are insensitive that some people would react negatively, talk about those ideas and you equip students and others to be able to mature adult withs the ideas and don t say them or think them. if you say them and think they re a bad person and it s effectively what they re implying and it s entirely counter productive and not safe. i see a list of words like that and i can t be the only one. so do i before i let you go, i ve been a huge fan of yours throughout the pandemic and how outspoken you were and i have to ask you a quick question and a school in new jersey just came out with a new guideline that pre-k all the way through twelfth grade and all the students and faculty wear masks and there s been a spike in covid cases and there s been 28 deaths. is that the right response right now going back to masks and kids in school?
condition those choices. and so, look, at the end of the day, what we re looking for is to provide truth, to provide accurate data and to provide accurate analysis. and we had a great researcher from denmark. you know, laura, denmark does not allow people under 50, unless they have pre-existing conditions, to get the mrna shots because they ve analyzed it and said that the draw backs outweigh the benefits. but they ve also looked at all-cause mortality and the researcher found that yes, in some age groups there was a decline in covid mortality after taking these but then there was an increase in other types of mortality. so why have we not seen big declines in excess mortality since these things have been introduced? so we have now a panel that we ve created in florida that is effectively going to function the way a cdc should function and basically do evidence-based medicine, take studies seriously that counteract the narrative.
medical professionals are suggesting it might be time for some americans to reconsider wearing masks again. it is true that covid is just smoldering along, but now we have rsv and we have influenza surging in most of the country. those are also very, very serious viruses. so it seems a reasonable thing to do if you are going out in public, put back that mask. and do some social distancing. this may be the time to rent the movie rather than going to the movie. the department of health and human services commissioned a study that suggested americans should be encouraged to wear masks again in public places. it did not call for a mask mandate. health professionals will careful to make a big distinction between voluntarily encouraging people to wear a mask and a mask mandate.
that. doctors say that we could soon see the return of mask mandates in response to a surge in covid cases. they are warning of an uptick in spread as gatherings and travel increase over the holiday season. so los angeles county is strongly recommending people mask up. it is not a mandate yet. but they are recommending people to mask up again as covid cases have reached 100 per 100,000. senior correspondent steve harrigan is live with this story this morning. good morning, julie. masks making a comeback in parts of the u.s. you mentioned los angeles county. the local rate of infection for covid there has gone up by more than 50% since the start of november. at this point local officials are strongly recommending that people wear masks in public places but no mandate there yet. because covid is now being accompanied by the start of the flu season and rsv, a lot of