Two Studies Conclude That Number of Children Hospitalized for COVID-19 Was Grossly Overcounted
Evan James
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Two research papers conclude that California hospitals significantly overstated the number of children hospitalized for COVID-19, New York Magazine’s “Intelligencer” has reported.
Both papers were published in the journal Hospital Pediatrics. In a commentary accompanying the papers, University of California San Francisco’s Monica Gandhi and Amy Beck wrote that California hospital data “greatly [overestimated] the true burden of COVID-19 disease in children.”
“Taken together, these studies underscore the importance of clearly distinguishing between children hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 found on universal testing versus those hospitalized for COVID-19 disease,” they wrote.
Gandhi told Intelligencer that although the papers only used data from California hospitals, “there is no reason to think these findings would be exclusive to California.”
“This sort of retrospective chart review will likely reveal the same findings across the country,” she said.
These studies add further weight to the claim that children are not in any sort of grave danger from COVID-19. Intelligencer notes that “the hospitalization numbers for children were already extremely low relative to adults—at the pandemic’s peak this winter, it was roughly ten times lower than for 18-to-49-year-olds and 77 times lower than those age 65 and up. But cutting the pediatric numbers by nearly half is a striking difference, making the actual rates vanishingly small.”
Both papers can be read in their entirety for free. The first paper is titled “‘For COVID’ or ‘With COVID’: Classification of SARS-CoV-2 Hospitalizations in Children.” The second is titled “Characteristics of Hospitalized Children Positive for SARS-CoV-2: Experience of a Large Center.”
The science is clear: There is zero reason for children to social distance and stay in masks. Parents and teachers who continue with the COVID can only be described as self-enstupidated and destructive.
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