Although mechanistic insight into the host inflammatory response to COVID-19 is still limited, it is likely that both IL-1α and IL-1β play a central role in the development of the exuberant, maladaptive inflammatory response leading to life-threatening states in some patients (Ben Salem, 2017; Mehta et al., 2020; Ruan et al., 2020). Here, IL1A is linked to COVID-19.