Analysis of a single‐cell RNA‐sequencing dataset (Ren et al, 2021a, Data ref: Ren et al, 2021b) showed that ZBP1 expression was significantly higher in COVID‐19 patients in the progressive disease stage than those in the convalescent stage or healthy controls and a positive correlation between virus load and the expression of ZBP1 and various cytokines in virus‐positive cells from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) and sputum samples (Fig EV5B and C). This evidence concerns the gene ZBP1 and COVID-19.