There were reasons to doubt that this would be a significant effect since IFN therapy has had inconsistent effects in antiviral trials (Channappanavar et al., 2019), and in the SARS epidemic patients with severe disease who were discharged from hospital had low levels of Type 1 IFN stimulated gene expression, whereas those who died had prominent Type 1 IFN activity (Cameron et al., 2007). The gene discussed is IFNA1; the disease is severe acute respiratory syndrome.