Consistent with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) presentation of severe COVID-19, multiple studies have also reported increased circulating levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines (CC) associated with COVID-19 severity including IL6, IL10, CCL2, CXCL10, and GMCSF (COvid-19 Multi-omics Blood ATlas (COMBAT) Consortium, 2021; Del Valle et al., 2020; Laing et al., 2020; Mann et al., 2020; Thwaites et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2020). The gene discussed is CCL2; the disease is acute respiratory distress syndrome.