IL6 and COVID-19: However, SARS-CoV-2 infection has been shown to suppress type I IFN antiviral responses (e.g., IFN-α and IFN-β) and elevate the production of inflammatory cytokines (e.g., IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α) in blood and lung samples from COVID-19 patients (Blanco-Melo et al., 2020; Hadjadj et al., 2020; Grant et al., 2021).