Fauci cautions COVID-19 variants could change timeline for end of pandemic The emergence of more contagious variants of the coronavirus, especially ones from South Africa and Brazil that have been shown to reduce the immunity from natural infections and vaccines, have made it challenging to predict when the nation will be able to put the pandemic behind it, Dr. Anthony Fauci told Reuters in an interview Monday. Fauci and Biden have said the United States should return to something approaching pre-pandemic normal life around Christmas That could change, Fauci cautioned. The variants also change the equation when it comes to herd immunity, in which a population becomes protected from infection because of high levels of immunity from vaccines or infections. Asked whether that is still achievable, Fauci said, “I think we can get herd immunity at least against getting sick.” Fauci: US death toll "should not have happened" in a "rich and sophisticated country" Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said political divisiveness contributed significantly to the “stunning” U.S. COVID-19 death toll, and said that half a million deaths “should not have happened” in “a rich and sophisticated country,” Reuters reports. “Even under the best of circumstances, this would have been a very serious problem,” Fauci said in an interview with Reuters on Monday, noting that despite strong adherence to public health measures, countries such as Germany and the UK struggled with the virus. “However, that does not explain how a rich and sophisticated country can have the most percentage of deaths and be the hardest-hit country in the world,” Fauci said. “That I believe should not have happened.” While the United States has just about 4% of the global population, it has recorded nearly 20% of all COVID-19 deaths. The country had recorded more than 28 million COVID-19 cases and 500,054 fatalities as of Monday afternoon, according to a Reuters tally of public health data. Biden, America’s designated mourner, shares personal lessons on grief Joe Biden was just 29 years old when he suddenly lost his first wife, Neilia, and their young daughter, Naomi, in a car crash in 1972. In 2015, another of Biden’s children, his 46-year-old son Beau, who had been following in his father’s political footsteps, died of brain cancer. Throughout his political career, Biden has spoken openly about those losses. Today, as president, he did so again, faced with a national tragedy whose scale is hard to fathom: 500,000 people dead from coronavirus in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. In a brief address today, Biden spoke directly and vividly from his own experience of grief, talking about what it is like to be able to be with your loved one when they die, what it is like to be far away, and about the survivor’s guilt that the living carry with them. He described the additional burden of not being able to take part in the normal rituals of mourning, as the dangers of infection have made normal funerals and memorial services impossible. Biden kept his remarks focused on the experience of grief, and the necessity, for individuals and for the nation, of taking time to grieve, rather than becoming numb to the mounting losses all around them. Americans are still reckoning with how political incompetence, racism, partisan divisions and widespread lies and conspiracy theories about coronavirus have worsened the toll of a deadly global pandemic. The president spoke only briefly to this larger political context of America’s half a million dead, saying, “We must end the politics of misinformation.” Candles at the White House to mark half a million dead from coronavirus Biden: ‘We must resist becoming numb to the sorrow’ Biden: ‘So many rituals that help us cope have not been available to us’ “To heal, you must remember,” President Joe Biden says now, in a very personal address to the nation on what it means to grieve lost family members, with half a million Americans dead from coronavirus. Biden’s life and political career have been marked by the tragic deaths of close family members, and he has been called America’s “designated mourner”, a man whose life has been haunted by loss, and who has channeled that loss into empathy. “We’ve seen profound courage from all of you on the frontlines,” Biden says. “You give us hope. You keep us going. You remind us that we do take care of our own.” Joe Biden addresses nation as US passes 500,000 coronavirus deaths “I know what it’s like to not be there when it happens. I know what it’s like when you are there, holding their hands...the survivor’s remorse, the anger.” Joe Biden is speaking about experiencing grief and loss as the United States marks 500,000 people dead. Bells tolled 500 times in the National Cathedral to mark the pandemic dead Mayor of small New York town unveils plan to abolish the city’s police department The mayor of Ithaca, a small college town in western New York state, is releasing a detailed plan that would replace the city’s police department with a “Department of Community Solutions and Public Safety,” journalist Wesley Lowery reports. The new department would be staffed by “armed ‘public safety workers’ and unarmed ‘community solution workers,’” and all current police officers would have to re-apply for jobs in the new department, according to the mayor’s in-depth plan. ‘It’s bananas’: dropping San Francisco rents mean deals for some, struggle for others The average rent in San Francisco has dropped sharply during the pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reports. For renters with a high enough income, that has meant that it’s possible to find better rental deals in San Francisco than across the Bay in Oakland. But for some working families in San Francisco who are struggling with pandemic job losses, the drop in prices for higher-end apartments has not helped their housing crisis. “In my situation, it’s not true that the rent is down,” one 35-year-old parent told the newspaper. “They ask you to make two or three times the rent to qualify for an apartment. And when you don’t have it, they hang up the phone.” For some, the post-Trump era in Washington feels calmer After four years of a 24-7 news cycle feeding off Trump’s 24-7 Twitter feed, the Biden era feels very different for some people in the nation’s capital, the New York Times reports. But for others, there has not been the same return to normalcy, Katie Rogers reports: Washingtonians who don’t have to hang on the president’s every word are still struggling to adjust to life in a city where the Capitol and the White House have essentially been militarized, and where daily life has been upended by both the coronavirus and civil unrest. Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen made a podcast together The news that a former American president and an iconic New Jersey songwriter will be launching an eight-episode podcast together has prompted delight among some and confusion among others. The podcast will feature Obama and Springsteen talking to each other. Report: Texas attorney general was in Utah during state power outages As power outages across Texas left residents struggling, the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, and his wife were in Utah, the Dallas Morning News reports. It’s the third known example of a public official leaving the state during the crisis, including the US senator Ted Cruz, who went to Mexico, and state representative Gary Gates, who took a private jet to Florida, the Houston Chronicle reports. US coronavirus death toll surpasses 500,000 More than 500,000 people have now died from Covid-19 in the US, just over a year after the country detected its first cases of a virus which has wrought almost unprecedented loss. Deaths breached half a million on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 28 million people have also tested positive for coronavirus in the US. Both numbers are the worst in the world and the pandemic has thrown a harsh spotlight on the US ability to cope with such a disaster, especially during the tumultuous tenure of Donald Trump, whose administration botched the government response. After a devastating winter surge in cases, for the first time in months, the average number of daily new coronavirus cases in the US fell below 100,000 on 12 February. Even with the decrease in cases, the US is still experiencing 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day and public health officials have warned recent progress could easily reverse. You can follow more updates on The Guardian’s global coronavirus liveblog: Democrats look for a way to keep minimum wage increase in Biden relief package This is Lois Beckett in Los Angeles, picking up our live politics coverage as America’s official death toll from the pandemic hits 500,000 people dead. Two centrist Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, are skeptical of including a minimum wage increase as part of Biden’s pandemic relief package, which is forcing other Democrats to devise potential compromise plans, Politico reports. Today so far That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours. Here’s where the day stands so far: The US coronavirus death toll will soon surpass 500,000, representing the highest death toll of any nation in the world. Joe Biden will soon deliver remarks to honor the half a million Americans who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. The supreme court rejected Donald Trump’s request to block New York prosecutors from gaining access to his tax returns. The court’s decision clears the way for Trump’s accounting firm to hand over eight years of his tax returns and financial documents to a grand jury examining the former president’s business dealings. The attorney general nominee Merrick Garland testified before the Senate judiciary committee. In his confirmation hearing, Garland pledged to protect the independence of the justice department if he is confirmed as attorney general. “I am not the president’s lawyer,” the federal judge said. “I am the United States’ lawyer.” The House budget committee advanced Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief package. In a nearly party-line vote of 19-16, the committee approved advancing the relief package. The bill now goes to the House rules committee before the full chamber votes on it later this week. Biden announced changes to the Paycheck Protection Program, a small business loan program that was created by the first coronavirus relief bill. The Biden administration is establishing a two-week exclusive application period for businesses with fewer than 20 employees to help small businesses that are on the brink of closure because of the pandemic. Lois will have more coming up, so stay tuned. Only one Democrat on the House budget committee, Lloyd Doggett of Texas, voted against advancing Joe Biden’s $1.9tn coronavirus relief bill today. But a spokesperson for the Democratic congressman said Doggett’s vote was an accident. “Rep Doggett was getting off the plane to DC from Texas and joined remotely in this hearing just as a vote was about to be announced,” a spokesperson said in a statement, per CNN. “He misunderstood that vote. He supports the Covid-19 relief legislation.” A reporter asked the White House team about the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, which has not yet been approved for distribution in the US. Senior adviser Andy Slavitt said he would wait to weigh in on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until later this week, when the Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel meets to discuss the company’s application for emergency use authorization. The White House coronavirus response team’s briefing has now concluded.