Immunity to and Common Respiratory Viruses at Age 0 to 4 Years After COVID-19 Restrictions

Why did rates of life-threatening invasive infections increase among children after the COVID-19 pandemic?In this cross-sectional study of 1942 children, 452 were tested for acquisition of antibody-mediated immunity to S pyogenes; the 67 children aged 3 to 4 years sampled after the introduction of nonpharmaceutical interventions early in the COVID-19 pandemic had significantly lower immunity compared with 87 similar children sampled before the pandemic. Acquisition of immunity to respiratory syncytial virus was similarly affected.The findings of this study suggest that nonpharmaceutical interventions aimed at limiting SAR-CoV-2 infections during the COVID-19 pandemic may have had a profound impact on the development of immunity to , exposing the young children to this infection.

Corresponding Author: Tom Parks, MD, Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 0NN, United Kingdom (t.parks@imperial.ac.uk).

Link to the article in your story

We encourage you to link out to this article in your story using the link below. It includes an access token that will give free access to the article for your readers up to one year after publication. (The link will be live after the article publishes and embargo is lifted.)

Please see the article for additional information, including full author list, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

Need more information? Contact us.