Is Omicron putting kids in the hospital?

Omicron is mild. So why are kids in the hospital? I bet they are mostly vaccinated, despite what the story claims. If you work in a hospital, please comment!

Consider this December 31 Bloomberg story, Kids’ Covid Hospitalizations Hit Record in U.S. Omicron Surge:

The story reads:

Pediatric Covid-19 hospitalizations have risen to record levels as omicron races across the U.S., amplifying the urgency to get boosters and vaccines cleared for children. 

While the variant so far doesn’t appear more severe than other versions in youngsters, the growing number of cases means more children are susceptible to serious illness. New hospital admissions of kids with Covid-19 have increased 66%  to 378 a day on average for the week ending Tuesday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The last peak occurred in early September at a daily count of 342. 

I have three questions:

1. What percentage of the kids admitted are vaccinated?

2. Why were they admitted? Were they admitted due to COVID symptoms as Dr. Roberta L. DeBiasi says? Or are they admitted for other reasons and just happen to have COVID as CDC Director Rochelle Walensky claims?

3. The story claims: “The majority of hospitalized kids are unvaccinated, according to the CDC. Unvaccinated adolescents 12 to 17 years old were 10 times more likely to be hospitalized than youth of the same age who were fully vaccinated.” Do you think that 10X number is true?

Let me know what you think about these 3 questions in the comments, especially if you work in a hospital.

Color me skeptical because:

1. This problem didn’t start happening until we started vaccinating our kids. So why now?

2. Omicron is mild. It doesn’t put people in the hospital. It’s like having a cold.

3. It’s not clear if this is sustained number or just a statistical fluke.

Explanations from the comments

From “Troubled Soul”:

New York State Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett, during a governor's press conference on Wednesday openly admitted exaggerating the pandemic among children to motivate parents into "Seeking the protection of vaccination".

"The numbers that we gave on pediatric admissions weren't intended to make it seem children were having a - you know, having an epidemic of infection," Dr Bassett said. "These were small numbers that we reported in our health alert. That was based on 50 hospitalizations. And I've now given you some larger numbers, but they're still small numbers".

"It really is to motivate pediatricians and families to seek the protection of vaccination", she admitted.