Patients with severe COVID-19 often show a profound dysregulation of the immune response [9], as evidenced by a shift in the cytokine profile of severe COVID-19 patients towards an increase in proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-17 and macrophage inflammatory protein (MIP-1α) [10]. Here, CXCL8 is linked to COVID-19.