I don't think so. Rate of infection and risk of illness are two separate statistics that may not be correlated. It doesn't mention whether the child hospitaliza

I don't think so. Rate of infection and risk of illness are two separate statistics that may not be correlated. It doesn't mention whether the child hospitalization rate is higher or lower for Covid vs the flu. The near-record numbers are only compared to previous Covid hospitalizations. All that means is we are close to having as many sick children with covid as we have had at any point since the pandemic started. It doesn't say anything about severity compared to flu. Comparing hospitalization rates with the flu is difficult. If a child has Covid and has moderately severe symptoms, they are probably more likely to go to the hospital than a child with the same level of symptoms and the flu, just because Covid is less familiar. That is especially true if you are looking at flu hospitalizations from pre-pandemic periods. Comparing mortality would probably be more relevant. A child with the Flu in 2019 was probably not going to go to the hospital unless she was turning blue or had an extremely high fever. With Covid i would probably take my child to the hospital if she was having any difficulty breathing, at a threshold much lower than what I would have gotten concerned about for the flu. That may or may not be a valid distinction for a parent to make. This research suggests that a parent of a child with flu or covid should probably have the same level of precaution.