In agreement with other studies, we found that IL-6 and TNFα were elevated in the COVID-19 cohort compared to the control subjects [median (IQR), all units picograms per milliliter; IL-6: 4.65 (3.32–9.16) vs 0.69 (0.55–0.89), p < 0.001; TNFα: 4.49 (1.87–8.03) vs 0.04 (0.04–0.84), p < 0.001] (Fig. 1a, b). Here, TNF is linked to COVID-19.