COVID‐19 clinical manifestations in children: What is the impact of the different SARS‐CoV‐2 variants and do we need to distinguish between different respiratory viruses?

Abstract

COVID-19 clinical manifestations in children: What is the impact of the different SARS-CoV-2 variants and do we need to distinguish between different respiratory viruses? There are three key questions we should ask regarding the paper published by Wurm et al. 1 The first question is related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus itself and its variants. Is it correct to compare the symptoms caused by the wild-type variant of SARS-CoV-2 with the symptoms caused by the Omicron variant and their multiple and nearly infinite subvariants? If the answer is not clear at all, then we may be dealing with completely different viruses when talking about the symptoms that these variants are able to produce, particularly in children. What we definitively know is that SARS-CoV-2 infection has been progressing throughout the pandemic as a result of the emergence of new variants. These variants have been used by the virus to escape from the immunological host response that is developed after a new infection or due to vaccination. The mutations associated with these variants have been defined as variants of concern because of increased transmissibility, altered clinical disease presentation or reduced efficacy of public health measures or vaccines. Some recent SARS-CoV-2 variants,