The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky reportedly disputed Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor's claims on the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 during an interview with "Fox News" on Sunday.
Scotus, a private organization tweeting Supreme Court-related news, tweeted Walensky "corrects Justice Sotomayor on mischaracterization of pediatric hospitalizations." The post included the video of the "Fox News Sunday" interview where the CDC director was heard.
The Epoch Times said Walensky affirmed during the interview that there were only 3,500 children hospitalized who have previously tested positive for COVID-19 and not the 100,000 claimed by Sotomayor during court arguments last January 7 regarding President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate.
"Yes, there are, and in fact what I will say is while pediatric hospitalizations are rising, they're still about 15-fold less than hospitalizations of our older age demographics," Walensky confirmed after being asked on the 3,500 hospitalized children.
"In some hospitals that we've talked to, up to 40 percent of the patients who are coming in with COVID are coming in not because they're sick with COVID, but because they're coming in with something else and have had COVID or the Omicron variant detected," she added.
During the interview, Walensky reminded that children have the lowest susceptibility to COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Walensky pointed out this is what cases during the Delta surge reaffirmed. She also reminded on the need to be vaccinated.
"I want to remind people that in the fall of this year, we had a Delta surge, and we were able to safely keep our children in school before pediatric vaccination," Walensky stressed.
Last December, the United States Supreme Court announced that it will weigh arguments on January 7 against Biden's vaccine mandates policies for businesses with more than 100 employees and for health care facilities funded by Medicare and Medicaid. The arguments revolve the constitutionality of enforcing such vaccine mandates Biden imposed to curtail the spread of the pandemic.
Sotomayor mentioned during the oral arguments that there were more than 100,000 children hospitalized due to COVID.
"We have hospitals that are almost at full capacity with people severely ill on ventilators. We have over 100,000 children, which we've never had before, in serious condition and many on ventilators," Sotomayor said.
Walensky's correction of Justice Sotomayor was the latest among several individuals who pointed out the error in the information. Politifact, for one, was quick to cite the CDC data that indeed only 3,500 children have been hospitalized. While doctors across the country have revealed that although there are many children hospitalized, not all of them are there because of COVID although they have tested previously as being positive for it.
For one, Seattle Children's Hospital Critical Care Chief Dr. John McGuire clarified in an interview with The Associated Press that "most of the COVID-positive kids in the hospital are actually not here for COVID-19 disease." McGuire explained that the children were confined for other issues, but happen to have tested positive.
Biden's vaccine mandates were reinstated in 26 states by federal courts in mid-December. The states opposing Biden's vaccine policies filed lawsuits saying the federal mandate is an "overreach." The Supreme Court is currently skeptical of these mandates from the OSHA.
