A series of studies investigating the low incidence of infections, severe illness, and deaths among children exposed to COVID has underscored how strikingly different human immunological defenses are at different life stages.

Research papers from across the world have illumined how children’s different cellular composition, interferon production, ACE-2 receptor function, T-cell responses, and other biological features guard against coronavirus.

Research About Children’s Natural Immunity

The child immunity studies include papers from the Charité Medicine University in Berlin, the Universities of Heidelberg, Tübingen, Ulm, Freiburg and Leipzig, and Nature. Dozens of international studies – from England to Italy, from China to the USA – provide insight into the surprisingly unique defense system of children

Collectively, the papers also suggest that children’s strong natural immunity makes their vaccination a dubious proposition and that children may provide a “generational immune barrier” which interrupts broader transmission.

Most Children Have Been Exposed to Coronavirus

Despite their low case rates and relatively insignificant rates of fatality attributed solely to COVID infection, children have had just as much exposure to the virus as adults. After two years of the pandemic, most children in the United States have developed natural immunity through mild infections which presented either as asymptomatic or a mild cold.

This means that children already have far better defense against COVID vaccination can provide.

Children Form “Generational Immunity Barrier”

The immunity of children, a population of 73 million, could play a special role in dampening the impact of COVID as it becomes an endemic disease due to their innate protection and natural collective immunity.

This current generation of previously infected children will grow into adulthood with an increasingly adapted defense against the virus and together, will be a significant COVID-resistant population. The studies suggest these trends among children will emerge with no interference from pharmaceutical companies’ current or future COVID vaccine or booster.

How Children’s Immune Systems Defend Against COVID

A passage from one of the children’s studies is quoted as an example:

A 2021 article called “Children’s Upper Airways Primed to Combat SARS-CoV-2 Infection,” in the medical journal MedScape said that “…New research suggests that children’s upper airway epithelial and immune cells are preactivated and primed to recognize SARS-CoV-2 infection, resulting in a stronger early immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection than adults can contribute.”
Numerous studies indicate show that children are significantly less at risk from COVID. The lowest risk of hospitalization is in the age group of 5-11 years. At this age there are virtually no Covid deaths without previous illnesses, with children suffering from chronic co-morbidities are exceptions.
Children have a different cell composition in the nose and oral cavity than adults. They have many more immune cells in their mucous membranes, and they also produce more quickly type 1- interferons, which are important for fighting viruses.
Children up to the age of 10 also have a lower number of ACE2 receptors than adults. The viruses can bind less. The number then increases from 10-11 years of age.
Children have a broad genetic spectrum of defenses in their “T” and “B” memory cells. They are able to store a large number of viral genetic sequences for years.
Children’s Spike-specific T cell responses were more than twice as high as in adults.

The Role of Naturally Acquired Immunity

Overall, the role of naturally acquired immunity to coronaviruses is increasingly coming to the fore in international government assessments. Scores of studies show natural immunity’s superiority compared with immunity conferred by mRNA vaccines in terms of range and durability. This applies to both recovered adults and children with and without symptoms from the infection.

Omicron: A Highly Contagious Less Dangerous Agent for Natural Immunity

Omicron is now asserting against the first lines of defense of a child’s immune system. However, high incidence dates do not mean an excess of diseases or mortality. The latest data from the U.K. show infection rates are highest in babies and kids up to 6 years old, but the daily average of child Omicron-cases in hospitals is less than 100 in England, compared to four million children under five years old, alone.

Of hospitalized child COVID cases, government experts said that most them were admitted for other diseases and incidentally tested positive for Omicron. In 5- 11 years, the hospitalization is near zero. No COVID-associated deaths have been recorded for people under 24 years old.

Pfizer Pediatric Vaccine Mostly Ineffective Against Omicron

In view of the rapid dominance of the Omicron variant, the benefit of serial vaccination of children aged 5-11 years with the Pfizer BioNTech pediatric dose is near zero. Europe’s weekly update shows the same trend as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Scotland, Denmark, and South Africa: Omicron does not prevent infection in adults. And while double or triple vaccinated adults might initially avoid serious illness, efficacy wanes after 4 or 5 months.

But children 5 -11 years have the lowest risk of hospitalization of all age groups and virtually no Covid-mortality. Children are also less likely to transmit the virus because of their rapid and effective immune defense. Infected adults infect five other people on average, while children infect only one other person. And COVID vaccines, overall, have been proven to be ill-suited for preventing infection.

Risks Vs. Benefits of Vaccinating Children

In light of children’s strong immunity to COVID, policymakers and parents should think about the risks involved in dosing them with experimental mRNA vaccines. These drugs have been shown to cause adverse events in young people so the risk for them is different than for older people who stand to gain more benefits from vaccination. It is also unknown how vaccinating children might impact their durable, broad natural immunity which acts as a personal shield against illness, but which may also become a population-wide generational defense.