Children can also be infected with the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, but have a substantially lower risk for developing severe COVID-19 disease compared to adults. A team of scientists from the Berlin Institute of Health at Charité (BIH), Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, University of Leipzig Medical Center, and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg used single-cell analyses to determine what causes this difference. They were able to show that the child’s immune system is much more active in the upper airways than in adults, making it better armed to fight off the virus. The researchers have now published their findings in the journal Nature Biotechnology.