When COVID-19 surfaced almost four years ago, one aspect of this strange virus provided some level of comfort in that it wasn’t too hard on kids.
The children who became infected generally suffered mild cases, in some cases so mild that you wouldn’t know they had contracted the virus without a test.
That was unusual. Often when it comes to contagious diseases, it’s the youngest who are the most vulnerable because their immune systems are still developing and they tend to be in settings — such as school or day care — where transmission rates of the disease are high. Yet with COVID, children younger than 5 were disproportionately spared the worst outcomes.
A study that’s just come out explains why. It found that children’s immune systems attacked the virus more quickly and stayed at it longer than the immune system of adults As a result, the level of infection was much less.
Parents of young children shouldn’t get complacent as a result of this research, however. Health experts still recommend vaccination to avoid the rare but extreme cases of illness.
