Since its first appearance, the severity of COVID-19 seemed to scale with age: older adults had higher mortality rates and risks, as opposed to the young. That's what makes a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) so alarming, as it notes a surprising spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations for infants under six months old during the omicron variant wave, which spanned from June 2021 to August 2022.
Fortunately, the reason for this increase is not because COVID-19 is adapting to infect the young better; but rather, because children under six months old are too young to be vaccinated. The report highlights the need to take precautions that might prevent COVID-19 from spreading to one's family, particularly when a family has one or more infants.
