A new Australian study, published in Nature Communications, provides insight into how kids’ immune systems respond to infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It’s the first study, to my knowledge, that directly compares children and adults with mild COVID-19. Children are less likely to become infected, and when they are, they are more likely to be asymptomatic. This is in contrast to other viral and respiratory infections that are more prevalent among young people. This new research helps explain how kids’ immune systems work when confronted with this coronavirus—and gives us clues as to why they generally seem to fare better than adults. The Kids (Immune Systems) Are Alright The researchers studied 48 kids, mostly in primary school, across 28 households during Melbourne’s second wave. All children were exposed to COVID-19 in their households by infected parents. This study focused on the “innate” immune response in children, which forms …