In our previous experience, we showed that TIM‐3 was overexpressed by CD8+ lymphocytes of patients with active chronic hepatitis B and not with inactive chronic hepatitis B.26Moreover, in our recent study, critical COVID‐19 patients had increased frequency of CD8+ TIM‐3+ and CD8+ TIM‐3+ CD39+ lymphocytes compared with noncritical and HI subjects (unpublished paper). Here, HAVCR2 is linked to chronic hepatitis B virus infection.