By genetic screening of 659 patients with life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia, relative to 534 subjects with asymptomatic or benign infections, Zhang et al. (2020) detected an enrichment in a functional deficiency of 13 human gene loci that are known to govern TLR3- and IRF7-mediated antiviral IFN induction signaling in the severe COVID-19 patients [51]. This evidence concerns the gene IFNA1 and infection.