Direct ex vivo phenotypic analysis of A2/S269+CD8+ T cells from COVID-19 convalescent individuals revealed that A2/S269+CD8+ T cells were suboptimally stimulated and contained naïve, stem cell memory and central memory A2/S269+CD8+ T cells rather than effector memory populations; therefore, epitope-specific CD8+ T cells are not fully recruited and activated during SARS-CoV-2 infection. This evidence concerns the gene CD8A and COVID-19.