Why do children seem to be more protected against COVID-19? a hypothesis

Abstract

Today it remains unclear why children seem to be less likely to get infected by COVID-19 or why they appear to be less symptomatic after infections. All individuals, especially children, are exposed to various viruses including human coronavirus (CoVs) that can generally lead to respiratory infections. We hypothesize that recurrent CoVs exposure may induce an effective antiviral B and T-cell-mediated adaptive immune response, which could also be protective against COVID-19. Based on the high-homology between the Spike protein epitopes of taxonomically-related coronaviruses, we theorize that past/recurrent contact with CoVs might shield children also against the circulating COVID-19 through a possible neutralizing antibody response previously CoVs-induced. This would open up possible lines of research for the development of live-attenuated virus vaccines from CoVs. Future research is desirable to confirm or disprove such hypothesis.