evidence: That trend, which doctors in China first reported, seems to be holding true in the U.S. as well. In the latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report report released today by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), scientists say that compared to adults, children under the age of 18 are less likely to experience the typical symptoms of infection, including fever, cough and difficulty breathing, and are also less likely to need hospitalization and less likely to die of COVID-19. [...] "The fact is that we are not seeing preponderance of severe [COVID-19] disease in young children, which is distinct from influenza," says Dr. Kristin Moffitt, an assistant professor pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital. [...] Doctors report seeing fewer children affected by COVID-19, even in places like Washington, which experienced the first burst of cases in the country. Moffitt, too, is not seeing as many younger children needing medical care at her own hospital. "We are seeing that the relative protection against severe disease among pediatric patients is holding true," she says. "There are very, very few pediatric patients requiring hospitalization."