More than 12.7 million children in the U.S. alone have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began. That's according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Generally, the coronavirus doesn’t hit kids as severely as adults. But some have bizarre outcomes.
Some youngsters suffer unexplained symptoms long after the virus is gone — what’s often called long COVID. Others get reinfected. Some seem to recover fine, only to be struck later by a mysterious condition that causes severe organ inflammation.
Doctors at Children’s National in Washington, D.C., and multiple other hospitals armed with money from the National Institutes of Health are studying children to try to figure out why.