Biden slams states lifting mask mandates: "The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking"Texas and Mississippi plan to lift coronavirus restrictions. CDC director warns states against lifting COVID-19 restrictionsCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky on Monday warned states against lifting coronavirus restrictions, pointing to the threat of variants and the "stalling" of recent declines in new cases. Biden marks 'heartbreaking milestone' of 500,000 US COVID deathsThe US is the worst-affected country in the world when it comes to deaths and cases, and accounts for 1 in 5 of the global fatalities. Dr Fauci says US response to coronavirus among the worst in the worldThe doctor’s comments come on the same night Joe Biden plans to honour the half a million Americans killed by the virus Coronavirus: Texas moves to lift mask mandate and lift Covid rulesTexas's mask mandate will be lifted and businesses allowed to reopen fully, Governor Abbott says. Double masking has limited effects, Japanese research saysWhen a mask fits well, 85% of droplets were curbed, with the effects falling to 69% for an ill-fitting mask, the team said. Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout begins with around 4 million dosesJohnson and & Johnson is beginning to ship doses of its COVID-19 vaccine following authorization over the weekend, with 3.9 million doses going out this week. ‘A Nightmare Every Day’: Inside an Overwhelmed Funeral HomeThose at Continental Funeral Home in East Los Angeles view themselves as working-class emergency workers. They have always done the work no one wants to, but now it’s to an extreme. Fauci Is Giving His Coronavirus Model to the SmithsonianDr. Anthony S. Fauci’s donation of his 3-D virus model to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History comes as museums are working to document the Covid-19 era. New COVID cases worldwide down by half since early January — WHO2.4 million cases were recorded last week, compared to over 5 million the week of January 4; coronavirus deaths also declining globally