Cicada COVID Variant Hits Kids Hard

0:00It's April 7th. From your city to your ears, this is Vancouver News today, powered by AI. A new COVID variant called cicada is making ways because it's tougher for vaccines to fight, especially the 2025-2026 formula, and it hits kids way harder than adults. This strain comes from the Omacron family that popped up back in 2021, and it's already turned up in 23 countries plus. These water samples from 25 U.S. states per CDC reports. Even with cases staying low nationwide, less testing might be hiding the real numbers, though cicada seems pretty mild overall compared to past. Fersions. In Maryland, hospital stays for COVID, flu, and RSV plunged from a peak of 1,442 in early January to just 100. 33 by late March, with COVID deaths dropping to 20 that month from over 40 each prior month. Decided from trackers shows kids 18 and under are five times more likely to catch cicada,

1:01accounting for over 60% of its cases versus around 12% for other strains, so keep an eye on the young ones as this evolves.