VEGFA and COVID-19: Extravasation of CD14+CD16+ intermediate monocytes is mediated by secretion of MMP-9, a protease that degrades extracellular matrix proteins, resulting in the release of matrix-bound VEGF-A and increased vascular membrane permeability (Sidibe et al., 2018), In COVID-19 patients with respiratory failure, a significant increase is observed in circulating MMP-9, strongly correlated with neutrophil count (Ueland et al., 2020).