How do children’s immune systems respond to COVID-19 compared to adults?

With the help of schoolchildren and their teachers, scientists from the UK Health Security Agency (UK HSA) and the University of Birmingham published research which shows that children have stronger immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 than adults. This may explain why children tend to have milder COVID-19 symptoms. They also found that some children who had never had COVID-19 might already be protected from other related coronaviruses that usually cause the common cold.

Alex Dowell, the researcher who led this work, is a scientist at University of Birmingham, working in the group of Paul Moss. Paul is a Professor of Haematology who has been working in the area of immunology for more than 30 years. His group look at how people’s immune response works to help protect them from viruses.

During the recent Coronavirus pandemic Paul and his team of 30 scientists have studied the immune response following coronavirus infection or vaccination in a wide range of different circumstances.
The work has been undertaken with many members of the public, ranging from 5-105 years of age!

The work described in this animation is a collaboration between Alex and Paul at the University of Birmingham and Shamez Ladhani, a paediatrician working in the area of infectious disease and his team at UK Health Security Agency.