Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief and current Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlieb is predicting that the federal mask mandate for airlines and other public transportation will be lifted in April if there is no surge in COVID-19 cases. Gottlieb, who led the FDA between 2017 and 2019, said he believes the Biden administration’s mask mandate for mass transit will be allowed to expire on April 18. “If we’re not in the thick of another wave of BA.2 infection in the middle of April, I think they will go ahead and lift that,” Gottlieb told CNBC in a recent interview. “I think the uncertainty around that is we are starting to see infections start to creep up. If it kind of levels off in the next couple of weeks, which it may, I think the administration will go ahead and lift that.” “My view was that they should lift …