Is the delta coronavirus variant more dangerous for children?

OVER recent months, some US hospitals have admitted record numbers of children with covid-19, leading to fears that the now-predominant delta variant of the coronavirus is more dangerous for this age group. Is that true?

When the pandemic took hold last year, we quickly learned that younger people are much less susceptible to serious covid-19. Age is by far the biggest risk factor for severe cases, with people aged 80 and over more than a thousand times as likely to die from infection than under-25s.

Then the more-transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus sprang up in India, surging…