HIF1A and congenital rubella syndrome: Indeed, hypoxia is a primary pathophysiological feature in severe COVID-19 and HIF1A is speculated to contribute largely to the CRS by activating and preventing turnover of immune cells including macrophages and neutrophils, which secrete large amounts of inflammatory cytokines (Walmsley et al., 2005; Nizet and Johnson, 2009; Jahani et al., 2020; Marchetti, 2020).