Thread by @dgurdasani1

It's been rather disappointing to see the lack of attention to the huge levels of hospitalisations we've been seeing in children in England in the past few weeks. >800 hosp/wk is non-trivial in children, and would've expected more attention on this. Brief discussion.🧵

Here are minutes from SAGE from 7th Dec- critical bit here:
"there does not appear to be a reduction in hospitalisation risk for omicron compared to delta younger children (under 10 yrs)"

Here's from the UKHSA report recently:
3x increase in hospitalisations in children in two weeks
Top 3 complaints of hosp admissions under 5 are consistent with respiratory infection- indicating COVID-19 is *causing* much of the increase seen under 5.

I actually don't find this tweet from RCPCH reassuring- while many of these hospitalisations may be 'mild' these kids were hospitalised, and infection/hosp in them was preventable - rather than considering this an inevitable consequence of rising cases.

https://twitter.com/RCPCHtweets/status/1481705779279314950?s=20

We've moved from saying that kids don't tend to get very ill to saying, yeah, loads of kids being hospitalised but the hospitalisations are 'mild'. Yes, most children aren't requiring ICU care, but why aren't we trying to reduce admissions - however 'mild' they may be.

Not to mention that long COVID in kids had already tripled pre-omicron!! Why aren't we vaccinating children- with benefits to them and younger siblings? Why aren't we mitigating infections in schools? Why isn't this a much bigger scandal & being reported in the media?