ELF5 and COVID-19: increase in genetically predicted ELF5 plasma abundances was associated with an almost fivefold higher risk for severe COVID-19 (odds ratio: 4.88; 95% CI: 2.47–9.63; p value < 5.0 × 10−6) in single-instrument Mendelian randomisation (MR) analysis using the lead cis protein quantitative trait locus (cis-pQTL) as the genetic instrument (Fig. 2, see Methods).