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. The gene discussed is IL6; the disease is respiratory failure.