Collectively, our data provide a rationale to understand how PB1-F2 exacerbate secondary bacterial infections and post-influenza pneumonia: PB1-F2 induces an apoptosis increase of recruited leucocytes together with a switch of their activation state from innate immunity to adaptive antiviral response through an exacerbation of the IFN-γ expression in the lung. Here, IFNG is linked to influenza.