The story about child COVID-19 hospitalizations is more complicated than the scary headlines suggest

Lots of people want to terrify you into believing that COVID-19 is sending huge numbers of children “too young to get vaccinated” into the hospital.

But the data they cite don’t establish that at all.

Certainly, the headlines would scare any parent: “ Children are hospitalized with Covid at record numbers !” “ Hospitalizations skyrocket in kids too young for COVID shots !”

This is an attempt to make you think that COVID-19 is putting record numbers of children, especially very young children, into the hospital. But from the data and reporting provided, it’s just as likely that we are seeing the typical seasonal surge in pediatric hospitalizations. Meanwhile, thanks to the very contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, more children with no COVID-19 symptoms are testing positive.

The Associated Press story at least tries to explain this: “The CDC also said the surge could be partially attributable to how COVID-19 hospitalizations in this age group are defined: a positive virus test within 14 days of hospitalization for any reason.”

So, at least some of these COVID-19-positive hospitalizations, perhaps most or nearly all, in fact, are hospitalized not even “with COVID,” but after COVID-19.