are working and without them, we could have even more people in the hospital. david? >> all right, victor oquendo reporting in tonight. victor, thank you. and you heard the troubling numbers on children and the virus tonight, driven by this delta variant. and with millions of schoolchildren heading back to school, we know many of you have questions about all of this at home. let's get right to dr. richard besser, someone we know well here, former acting director of the cdc. the president of the robert wood johnson foundation. and a practicing pediatrician. dr. besser, great to have you, as always. i wanted to get right to those numbers we heard in victor's report. the number of children in the hospital now with the virus is now at the highest number since this pandemic began. i now the cdc hasn't said yet if the delta variant is more severe in children, but in just looking at the math, the sheer number of cases here, we're going to see an increase in severity in cases. >> that's right, david. the virus doesn't have to be more severe for more children to be severely affected. if it's spreading rampantly, we're going to see more kids who are cases, thankfully, most will