[Adam Murphy (OP)]

Chris sent us a message to ask:

I understand children can catch covid19 and normally do not display symptoms although they are transmitters of the virus.

In a few cases there appears to be an extreme early reaction. My question is:
What confidence level is there that this disease will not remain latent only to arise years later when they are an adult?
What studies are being carried out on the long-term monitoring of known infected children?

Could it come roaring back, what do you think?

[Petrochemicals]

Its a cold virus, they have not cured the cold yet, nor have they dissapeared.

[Bored chemist]

We are unlikely to eliminate this virus any time soon. It's not going to need to "come back"- it's not going away.

Having said that, relatively few viruses hide in the body and then return from some latent state. I doubt covid will do it.

[evan_au]

Coronavruses are not retroviruses (eg HIV), which can hide out in the host's DNA. As soon as you stop medication, these viruses burst out again.

There are a few "immune-privileged" tissues where the normal immune system is not so active:
- the eyes
- the placenta and fetus
- the testicles
- the central nervous system
- actively growing hair follicles
It will take time to discover whether coronavirus can hide out in any of these are reservoirs which could then infect others (it probably can't cause a general infection of the same individual, once they have developed immunity).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immune_privilege

There are a few viruses that can hide in the nervous system: chicken pox (produces shingles in old age, as the immune system weakens), and rabies (fatal in months, if untreated).