As of this week, federal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that 74.4% of the total population in the United States have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. While vaccination coverage has increased, it remains uneven across the country. Amid the current Omicron variant-related surge, unvaccinated people are at particularly increased risk for infection, severe illness, and death.

The mainstream media has resorted to shaming and insulting unvaccinated Americans as the ongoing COVID pandemic surges, but medical professionals don’t think the "substandard" tactic is appropriate unless the ultimate goal is to further divide the nation. 

Prior coronavirus infections appear to be much less protective against symptomatic Omicron reinfections than reinfection with other variants, according to a new study by Qatari researchers that has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Why it matters: If you're counting on your previous coronavirus infection to keep you from getting it again, don't.

US President Joe Biden has urged Americans to get jabbed, saying the unvaccinated "have a significantly higher risk of ending up in hospital, or even dying".

"Almost everyone who has died from Covid-19 in the past many months has been unvaccinated," he told Americans on Tuesday.

About six in ten Americans are fully vaccinated, but in some states it's fewer than that.

Case and death rates for people who are not vaccinated are higher in the US than for those fully vaccinated, according to data collected by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

People who get COVID-19 from the Omicron virus variant are less likely to require hospital care, according to a UK study published Wednesday.

Researchers from the Imperial College London estimated (pdf) that Omicron patients were 20- to 25-percent less likely to need hospital care and 40- to 45-percent less likely to be hospitalized for one night or more when compared to patients with the Delta variant.

South African data offered a glimmer of hope on Wednesday about the severity of the Omicron coronavirus variant, but World Health Organization officials cautioned that it was too soon to draw firm conclusions as the strain spread across the globe.

With the second Christmas of the pandemic days away, countries imposed new restrictions on their citizens while worrying about the damage the variant might inflict on their economies.

Plans for Christmas parties and celebrations were wiped out from London to New Delhi amid the uncertainty.

Two studies from Scotland and England analyzing rates of hospital treatment for those infected with Omicron suggest the coronavirus variant may cause less severe disease than previous variants, although scientists caution more research is needed.

Early data from Scotland indicates that there is a two-thirds reduction in hospitalization of double vaccinated young adults, compared with the Delta variant. In addition, data from England signals that Omicron infection is associated with a 15 to 20 percent reduced risk in requiring any hospital treatment, compared with Delta.

The White House and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should acknowledge the immunity conferred by prior COVID-19 infection in their messaging, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) said Sunday.

Marshall, a doctor, has called for many Americans to get a COVID-19 vaccine but also opposes vaccine mandates like the ones put forth by President Joe Biden and top officials in his administration.

People who have recovered from COVID-19 are at little risk of contracting the disease again, according to a study published last week.

Researchers in Qatar examined a cohort of over 353,000 people using national databases that contain information about patients with polymerase-chain-reaction-confirmed infections.

The studied population contracted COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, between Feb. 28, 2020, and April 28, 2021.

Getting sick from a harmless coronavirus may protect you from COVID-19, researchers at the University of Zurich recently found.

A team of researchers found that antibody responses from previous coronavirus infections can help create immunity to COVID-19.