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   From: democrats-suck@twitter.com   
      
   NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Within weeks, the Omicron variant has   
   fueled thousands of new COVID-19 hospitalizations among U.S.   
   children, raising new concerns about how the many unvaccinated   
   Americans under the age of 18 will fare in the new surge.   
      
   The seven-day-average number of daily hospitalizations for children   
   between Dec. 21 and Dec. 27 is up more than 58% nationwide in the   
   past week to 334, compared to around 19% for all age groups, data   
   from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. Fewer   
   than 25% of the 74 million Americans under 18 are vaccinated,   
   according to the CDC.   
      
   Omicron cases are expected to surge even faster across the United   
   States as schools reopen next week after the winter holiday, experts   
   cautioned.   
      
   Doctors say it is too early to determine whether Omicron causes more   
   severe illness in children than other variants of the coronavirus,   
   but that its extremely high transmissibility is one key factor that   
   is driving up hospitalizations.   
      
   "It is going to infect more people and it is infecting more people.   
   We've seen numbers go up, we've seen hospitalizations in kids go   
   up," said Dr. Jennifer Nayak, an infectious disease expert and   
   pediatrician at the University of Rochester Medical Center.   
      
   "What we are seeing is that children under five remain unvaccinated   
   so there's still a relatively large population of children who are   
   naive, so they have no preexisting immunity to this virus," said   
   Nayak.   
      
   Even in New York City, which has some of the highest vaccination   
   rates in the United States, only around 40% of 5-to-17-year-olds are   
   fully vaccinated compared with more than 80% of adults, city health   
   data shows. There is no authorized vaccine for U.S. children under   
   the age of 5.   
      
   Hospitalizations in New York City of people aged 18 and younger   
   increased from 22 the week starting Dec. 5 to 109 between Dec. 19   
   and Dec. 23. Children under the age of 5 represented almost half of   
   the total cases. Hospitalizations of people 18 and under in the   
   entire state were at 184 from Dec. 19 to Dec. 23, up from 70 from   
   Dec. 5 to Dec. 11.   
      
   Other parts of the United States are also seeing a spike in cases   
   among children. Ohio has seen a 125% increase in hospitalizations   
   among children 17 and under in the past four weeks, according to   
   data from the Ohio Hospital Association.   
      
   Florida, New Jersey and Illinois have witnessed an increase of at   
   least doublein the seven-day average daily hospitalization of   
   underage patients with the coronavirus over the past week, CDC data   
   shows.   
      
   SLOW UPTAKE   
      
   Young children have far lower vaccination rates than other age   
   groups, with some families hesitating to introduce a new vaccine to   
   their youngest members.   
      
   Fewer than 15% of U.S. children aged 5-11 have been fully vaccinated   
   since Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and BioNTech's COVID-19 shot was authorized   
   for that age group in late October, federal data shows.   
      
   Doctors said the more severe COVID-19 symptoms they are seeing in   
   hospitalized children this month include difficulty breathing, high   
   fever, and dehydration.   
      
   "They need help breathing, they need help getting oxygen, they need   
   extra hydration. They are sick enough to end up in the hospital, and   
   that's scary for doctors, and it's scary for parents," said Rebecca   
   Madan, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at New York   
   University's Langone Health hospital system.   
      
   The surge in cases occurred as schools closed for the winter   
   holidays. Before the vacation, more than a thousand classrooms have   
   been either fully or partially quarantined due to outbreaks,   
   according to New York City data. The city said it will open schools   
   for about a million children as planned on Jan. 3, following the   
   district's winter recess.   
      
   Research has shown that a substantial amount of COVID-19   
   transmission among children tends to happen outside of schools. But   
   Madan and others expect a new spike in cases among children from   
   holiday gatherings, which could disrupt classroom attendance.   
      
   "The virus has just been able to outsmart, penetrate beyond, what it   
   is the parents have done to shelter those children," said William   
   Schaffner, a leading infectious disease expert from the Vanderbilt   
   University School of Medicine.   
      
   Reporting by Carl O'Donnell in New York and Ahmed Aboulenein in   
   Washington D.C.; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Aurora Ellis   
      
   https://www.reuters.com/world/us/covid-19-hospitalization-surge-   
   among-us-children-spurs-new-omicron-concerns-2021-12-30/   
      
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