How likely are kids to get Covid-19? Scientists see a ‘huge puzzle’

Five months into the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the biggest unknowns about the infection still is what role children play in its spread. There is some evidence to suggest that children are less likely to catch and spread the virus, but experts say that we're unlikely to have a clearer picture until kids go back to school and resume other aspects of normal life. The hope is that the evidence collected thus far about kids' small part in the spread of the virus holds true. "We are going to find out," pediatric infectious disease specialist Sean O'Leary tells STAT's Helen Branswell. Read more here.

Here's what else is new with the pandemic:

The WHO announced yesterday that it was dropping the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine from its large trial investigating possible treatments for Covid-19, dealing yet another blow to the use of this drug and the related drug chloroquine for the novel coronavirus.
The vast majority of Americans are concerned that drug makers will take advantage of the pandemic to raise drug prices, according to a new Gallup/West Health Poll. And 88% support the federal government negotiating directly with pharma companies in an effort to negotiate prices for a Covid-19 therapy, including a vaccine.
A new analysis of 118 Covid-19 trials being run by universities and companies in Europe finds that two-thirds of them have no record of ever having posted clinical trial results to a database as mandated by EU law. Only eight sponsors have been fully compliant with the rules. “Those investments will only benefit patients if research findings are made public,” Till Bruckner, who heads the nonprofit that performed the analysis, tells STAT's Ed Silverman.
Gilead said that it would soon be launching a Phase 2/3 trial to test its Covid-19 drug in 50 pediatric patients — from newborns through adolescents — with moderate-to-severe disease.