01/04/2020
The evidence so far suggests that children are less vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus, but they can still be infected. Why does the virus seem to affect children differently?
There is much debate about the credibility of a recent tweet by entrepreneur Elon Musk suggesting children are "essentially immune" to the coronavirus. So far, the narrative has been that while the coronavirus may cause severe, or even fatal, disease in the elderly, the outcomes for children are reassuring.
Nevertheless, there have been a few concerning reports of young people being seriously affected by the virus. These, together with school closures implemented last week in many countries around the world alongside strict social distancing measures, have made many parents worry about the effect it could have on their children.
Can children be infected with the coronavirus?
Yes. Just as with adults, children exposed to the coronavirus can be infected with it and display signs of Covid-19. “At the beginning of the pandemic, it was thought that children are not getting infected with the coronavirus, but now it is clear that the amount of infection in children is the same as in adults,” explains Andrew Pollard, professor of paediatric infection and immunity at the University of Oxford. “It’s just that when they do get the infection they get much milder symptoms.”
Data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that children under 19 years of age comprised 2% of the 72,314 Covid-19 cases logged by February 20th, while a US study of 508 patients, reported no case fatalities among children, with this group accounting for less than 1% of the patients in hospital.
“It could be that the virus has preferentially affected adults at the moment because there has been workplace transmission and transmission during travel,” says Sanjay Patel, a paediatric infectious diseases consultant at Southampton Children’s Hospital. “Now that adults are spending more time with their children we might see a rise in infection in children, but we might not.”
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Overall global trends seem to suggest children are less likely to be infected than adults, especially older adults, but it is very possible the data is biased by the fact that, in some countries, testing is only offered to those who show up in hospital with severe symptoms of Covid-19, very few of whom are children.
“Clearly, more children are infected than we think,” says Patel. “We are not testing every child in the country.”
How does the coronavirus affect children differently from adults?
“It is a remarkable observation, in the global literature that we have for coronavirus already, that even children with very serious medical conditions, who are on immunosuppressive therapies or on cancer treatments, are much less affected than adults, especially older adults,” says Andrew Pollard, head of the Oxford Vaccine Group, whose researchers have recently identified a vaccine candidate for Covid-19.
In general, children with Covid-19 experience milder symptoms than adults. But a 12-year-old girl from Belgium and a 13-year-old boy from London, UK, have both died in recent days, making them the youngest victims in Europe. A 14-year-old in China has also been reported to have died after being infected with the virus.
