I'm good with being wrong. I never claim to be right all the time and being wrong is how you learn. This is what I found which does appear I over-stated things a bit perhaps.
Influenza hospitalization rates for the 2019 season:
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html
0-17 years: 39,205 for a population of 9,641,666; or 406 per 100,000 for the entire influenza season
65+: 204,326 for a population of 2,247,586l or 9,090 per 100,000 for the entire influenza season
The 65+ to 0-17 "ratio" for influenza is 22.3x.
COVID weekly hospitalization rate (pre-vaccine roll-out at peak, week ending Jan 2, 2021)
https://gis.cdc.gov/grasp/COVIDNet/COVID19_3.html
0-17 years: 1.1 per 100,000 population
65+ years: 69.6 per 100,000 population
The 65+ to 0-17 "ratio" for COVID-19 is 63x. Admittedly, will vary depending on exact date you choose. A cumulative percentage would be more accurate but don't have the time to come up with it.
Still, approximately tripling the "age hospitalization ratio" seems significant to me. Happy to see data for other diseases.
Edit: I found
this which shows a 65+ to 0-17 ratio for COVID-19 of 36x (slide 6) using March-Nov 2020 data, so that shows a more "muted" discrepancy than I listed above. Still, a 50% larger ratio than influenza but not 300%.