CD8A and infection: Although CD8+ T cells do not prevent infection, they have a key role in viral clearance which contributes to the resolution of symptoms (Kundu et al., 2022; Thevarajan et al., 2020) and robust CD8+ T cell immunity has been shown to result in overall milder symptoms in SARS-CoV-2 patients (Rydyznski Moderbacher et al., 2020; Tan et al., 2021).