when it comes to media coverage of the coronavirus, conventional wisdom seems to be that the new omicron variant is mild. it's a common reframe. it's mild. mild. you hear it on both the left and the right. but is it true? well, omicron isn't as severe as delta, yes, but hospitalizations have already hit a new pandemic peak among a huge numbers of children many too young to be vaccinated. hospitalized kids doesn't sound mild to me. more importantly those who insist it is mild are not considering the long term effects that an infection might have. this is a new disease. the research into it is just beginning. no one knows what those effects will be. we are starting to get an idea. last fall the world's largest study on long covid in children found that 1 in 7 a full 14% of whirn who got covid may still