The media are doing the best they can to scare parents into believing their children are suddenly very at-risk for the coronavirus, but the available information confirms most of this is baseless fearmongering.

Headline after headline this past week has highlighted the rising number of admissions in pediatric hospitals to suggest that the delta variant poses a bigger threat to children than the original COVID-19 strain. But a deeper dive into these reports shows they’re backed by lots of anecdotes and very little actual scientific evidence.