The clinical relevance of a well-functioning IFN response was emphasized by the finding that 3.5% of patients with life-threatening COVID-19 had genetic defects in genes involved in virus recognition, IFN production, and signaling, including TLR3, TBK1, IRF3, IRF7, IFNAR1, and IFNAR2 (Zhang et al., 2020). The gene discussed is IFNA1; the disease is COVID-19.