Record delta wave hits kids, raises fear as US schools open

The day before he was supposed to start fourth grade, Francisco Rosales was admitted to a Dallas hospital with COVID-19, struggling to breathe, with dangerously low oxygen levels and an uncertain outcome.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this, thought his frightened mother, Yessica Gonzalez. Francisco was normally healthy and rambunctious. At 9, he was too young to get vaccinated, but most of the family had their shots. She had heard kids rarely got sick from the coronavirus.

But with the highly contagious delta variant spreading across the U.S., children are filling hospital intensive care beds instead of classrooms in record numbers, more even than at the height of the pandemic. Many are too young to get the vaccine, which is available only to those 12 and over.

The surging virus is spreading anxiety and causing turmoil and infighting among parents, administrators and politicians around the U.S., especially in states like Florida and Texas, where Republican governors have barred schools from making youngsters wear masks.

With millions of children returning to classrooms this month, experts say the stakes are unquestionably high.

Very high infection rates in the community “are really causing our children’s hospitals to feel the squeeze,’’ said Dr. Buddy Creech, a Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist who is a helping lead research on Moderna’s vaccine for children under 12. Creech said those shots probably won’t be available for several months.

“I’m really worried,’’ said Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a pediatrician and public health expert at the University of Florida. “It’s just so disappointing to see those numbers back up again.”

While pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization rates are lower than those for adults, they have surged in recent weeks, reaching 0.41 per...