https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-omicron-is-putting-more-kids-in-the-hospital/
The huge jump in cases means more hospitalizations. And children’s small airways can be more easily blocked by infections
Until very recently, if there was one silver lining to the pandemic, it was that kids seemed to escape the worst of the virus. Very few became seriously ill or even mildly sick, compared with adults. But now that hopeful aspect may be fading. The number of children hospitalized with COVID has skyrocketed in recent weeks as the Omicron variant fueled a surge of infections, raising concerns that the latest version of the coronavirus may pose a greater threat to children.
Nationwide, an average of 881 children under age 17 are being admitted to hospitals with COVID each day, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitalizations of children under the age of five, who are not eligible for the COVID vaccine, have soared to levels two to four times that of previous peaks.
Experts believe the jump in pediatric hospitalizations is likely the result of a confluence of factors. One of them is Omicron’s more contagious nature, and another may be the variant’s newfound preference for airway passages above the lungs, which can be more easily blocked in small children.
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Thus far, there are no signs that the cases caused by Omicron are more severe. If anything, preliminary evidence suggests the opposite may be true. Rong Xu, a data scientist at Case Western Reserve University, analyzed health records from nearly 80,000 children under age five who developed COVID-19 before and after the emergence of Omicron. She found that the risk of hospitalization in those who became sick when that variant was dominant was one third of what was observed when Delta reigned supreme (1 percent versus 3 percent). The study is consistent with previous work showing similar trends for children of all ages and is supported by a recent analysis of COVID patients in California.