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Children’s seeming imperviousness to Covid-19’s worst effects has been one of the biggest mysteries—and reliefs—of the pandemic. Now the reasons are coming into focus, scientists say: Children mobilize a first line of defense known as the innate immune system more effectively than adults. Although some children do fall seriously ill after coming down with Covid-19, the most have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Unlike other respiratory viruses such as the flu or respiratory syncytial virus, SARS-CoV-2 doesn’t hit children nearly as hard as it does adults or the elderly. (Toy, 2/21)

Lower percentages of US children visited an emergency department (ED) for any indication amid the COVID-19 pandemic, while adolescent girls accounted for the largest hikes in visits for mental illness, according to two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies published late last week in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). For both studies, the researchers mined pediatric ED visit data in the National Syndromic Surveillance Program for three periods: Mar 15, 2020, to Jan 2, 2021; Jan 3, 2021, to Jan 1, 2022; and Jan 2 to 29, 2022, compared with the same periods in 2019. (2/21)

The pre-Thanksgiving spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant among fully vaccinated attendees of a New York City Anime convention was an early sign the variant was able to evade vaccines, according to a study today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). But despite a high attack rate among close contacts, the convention itself was likely not a super-spreading event, according to another study published today in MMWR, and it had limited impact on the variant's introduction to the United States, researchers said. (Soucheray, 2/18)

A new study from French researchers shows that family members of patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) with COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), as compared with other causes of ARDS, were at a significantly increased risk of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 90 days after ICU discharge. The study was published in JAMA late last week. The prospective study included patients seen in 23 ICUs in France from January of 2020 to June of 2020, with final follow-up ending in October of that year. (2/21)

Early treatment with the antiparasitic drug ivermectin does not lower the risk of severe disease when given to patients with mild to moderate COVID-19, according to a study today in JAMA Internal Medicine. And a related study in the same journal finds connections between prescribing patterns for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine by political-party vote share in 2020. Doctors at 20 Malaysian government hospitals and a COVID-19 quarantine center conducted an open-label, randomized clinical trial on the use of ivermectin in the first week of COVID-19 symptom onset in hospitalized adults 50 years and older with mild or moderate illness and underlying medical conditions. The study took place from May 31 to Oct 25, 2021. (Van Beusekom, 2/18)