This Delta variant is changing the game' for children -- pediatrician

The Delta variant of the coronavirus has shown to be more contagious than previous versions, particularly for the unvaccinated, and that's creating a level of risk for children that didn't arise in 2020.

“Children are getting hospitalized at higher rates than we’ve ever seen,” Dr. Mona Amin, a board-certified physician, said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “And yes, we do see that most children who are hospitalized are children of unvaccinated parents. But as this Delta variant surges, we are also seeing children of vaccinated parents get admitted for hospitalization for COVID.”

According to American Academy of Pediatrics, there were over 180,000 new confirmed cases among U.S. children in the week ending August 19, with more than a four-fold increase in cases over the past month. Overall, children now represent 22.4% of reported weekly cases.

“We’re actually in the second biggest wave for children,” Amid said. “180,000 children in the last week have tested positive. The highest we’ve ever seen for children has been 211,000. That was back in January. So this Delta variant is changing the game.”

Asking about what parents can do amid the heightened transmission, Amin explained that "we do the best we can with risk reduction, with masking, with vaccination, with maybe weighing benefit and risk with every social experience that we take our unvaccinated children into.” ...