Ted Cruz has criticized the Biden administration after the president's Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted there was a difference between the number of children hospitalized 'with COVID' as opposed to 'because of COVID.'
Fauci told MSNBC on Wednesday night: 'If a child goes into the hospital, they automatically get tested for COVID and they get counted as a COVID-hospitalized individual, when, in fact, they may go in for a broken leg or appendicitis or something like that.
'So it's over counting the number of children who are, quote, hospitalized with COVID as opposed to because of COVID'.
It means some children are some are testing positive while in the hospital for something else, resulting in the hospitalization figures being elevated.
Cruz responded with a tweet saying: 'Now Fauci says this? Is this because pandemic politics have changed for the Biden admin?'
Fauci's controversial comments came as the number of children in hospital with COVID soared to an average of 334 per day, while the US smashed another world record with 647,067 new infections on Thursday.
The latest variant has paralyzed life across the country with thousands of flights canceled because of staff shortages, supermarket and store closures, long lines for testing and New Year's Eve plans in tatters.
There is also mounting criticism of the Biden administration's handling of the pandemic with cases reaching record highs and widespread testing shortages, despite the president's campaign promise to 'shut down' the virus.
In an interview on Thursday morning, Fauci blamed anti-vaxxer parents of children being admitted to hospital with COVID.
The Chief Medical Advisor to the president told Morning in America that it 'doesn't make any sense' for parents to not get their children vaccinated for COVID-19, like they do with other childhood diseases.
'If you look at the number of children right now going to the hospital who are in trouble getting seriously ill, you almost have to say it's the responsibility of the parent to protect their child,' Dr. Fauci said.
'It is true that when you compare the hospitalizations and severe illness in young children compared to adults, particularly the elderly, there's no doubt that the likelihood of getting seriously ill for a child is less than for an adult when you're dealing with Covid-19.'
'But that doesn't mean that children do not get seriously ill. And all you have to do is go to any pediatric hospital right now, virtually anywhere in the country.'
Dr. Paul Offit, an infectious-disease expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told the Associated Press that unlike last year when the vaccine had yet to be made available to adults and minors alike, parents don't have an excuse to not vaccinate their children.
'It's just so heartbreaking,' said Dr. Offit.
'It was hard enough last year, but now you know that you have a way to prevent all this.'
During the week of December 22 through 28, an average of 378 children 17 and under were admitted per day to hospitals with the coronavirus, a 66 percent increase from the week before, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.
The previous high over the course of the pandemic was in early September, when child hospitalizations averaged 342 per day, the CDC said.
Children continue to represent a small percentage of those being hospitalized with COVID-19: An average of nearly 10,200 people of all ages were admitted per day during the same week in December.
And many doctors say the youngsters seem less sick than those who came in during the delta surge over the summer.
Two months after vaccinations were approved for five- to 11-year-olds, about 14 percent are fully protected, CDC data shows. The rate is higher for 12- to 17-year-olds, at about 53 percent.
A study released Thursday by the CDC confirmed that serious side effects from the Pfizer vaccine in children ages five to 11 are rare.
The findings were based on approximately eight million doses dispensed to youngsters in that age group.
Dr. Albert Ko, professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases at the Yale School of Public Health, noted that the low vaccination rate is, in part, a matter of timing: Younger children were not approved for the vaccine until November, and many are only now coming up on their second dose.
Offit said none of the vaccine-eligible children receiving care at his hospital about a week ago had been vaccinated, even though two-thirds had underlying conditions that put them at risk - either chronic lung disease or, more commonly, obesity. Only one was under the vaccination age of five.
The scenes are heart-rending.
'They're struggling to breathe, coughing, coughing, coughing,' Offit said.
'A handful were sent to the ICU to be sedated. We put the attachment down their throat that's attached to a ventilator, and the parents are crying'
None of the parents or siblings have been vaccinated either, he said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fauci added that many kids are suffering, and some even dying, who do not need to be.
'You see children there who are suffering, some even dying, who need not be in that situation, if they were vaccinated because virtually all — not 100 percent but close to that — of the children who are seriously ill in a hospital from COVID-19 are children whose parents decided they did not want to vaccinate them, and that is avoidable,' he said.
And the next four to six weeks are going to be rough, Dr. Offit added: 'This is a virus that thrives in the winter.'
Aria Shapiro, six, spent her 12th day Thursday at Phoenix Children's Hospital. She tested positive for COVID-19 after getting her first dose of the vaccine December 17.
Aria, who is considered 'medically fragile' because she has epilepsy, suffered prolonged seizures in the hospital, and a breathing tube had to be put down her throat at one point, though she has since improved.
'We lived our life in for two years to prevent her from getting COVID, finally went for the vax, and the one thing that we didn't want to happen happened,' said her mother, Sarah Shapiro.
'It wasn't enough time for her body to build antibodies. She did end up getting COVID.'
Overall, new COVID-19 cases in Americans of all ages have skyrocketed to the highest levels on record: an average of 300,000 per day, or two and a half times the figure just two weeks ago. The highly contagious omicron accounted for 59 percent of new cases last week, according to the CDC.
Still, there are early indications that the variant causes milder illness than previous versions, and that the combination of the vaccine and the booster seems to protect people from its worst effects.
In California, 80 COVID-19-infected children were admitted to the hospital during the week of December 20-26, compared with 50 in the last week of November, health officials said.
Seattle Children's also reported a bump in the number of children admitted over the past week. And while they are less seriously ill than those hospitalized over the summer, Dr. John McGuire cautioned that it is early in the omicron wave, and the full effects will become apparent over the next several weeks.
New York health authorities have also sounded the alarm.
The number of children admitted to the hospital per week in New York City with COVID-19 went from 22 to 109 between December 5 and December 24. Across all of New York state, it went from 70 to 184.
Meanwhile, Dr. Fauci questioned on those who find it 'dangerous' to reduce the isolation time from 10 to 5 days.
Fauci admitted that the new guidance 'may not have been as communicated as well by the CDC when they came out with it,' but he stood by the CDC's recommendation for people to isolate long enough for their COVID-19 transmission likelihood starts to drop.
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