Two separate studies of pediatric patients in Wuhan, China found that though clinical manifestations of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in children were less severe than those of adult patients, young children, particularly infants, were vulnerable to the infection.1-2
“Why most of the children’s COVID-19 cases were less severe than adults’ cases is puzzling. This may be related to both exposure and host factors,” the authors of the first study wrote.1 “These results suggest that young children, particularly infants, were vulnerable to [COVID-19] infection. Therefore, the mechanisms for the difference in clinical manifestations between children and adults remain to be determined.”
The first study, published in Pediatrics, looked at a nationwide case series of 2,143 pediatric patients with COVID-19 reported to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention…