Expansion of IL‐6‐producing CD14+CD16+ monocytes was observed in peripheral blood from severe COVID‐19 patients (X. Zhang, Tan, et al., 2020; Y. Zhou, Fu, et al., 2020), but reduction of HLA‐DR on CD14+ monocytes was found in COVID‐19 patients with severe respiratory failure, which was associated with increased IL‐6 (Giamarellos‐Bourboulis et al., 2020), indicative of immunosuppression. This evidence concerns the gene IL6 and COVID-19.