The analysis of inflammatory mediators previously found to correlate with COVID-19 symptoms, such as TNFα, IL-1β or IL-1 RA,7,8,9 showed that long-term carriers display inflammatory responses comparable to non-persistent patients at the onset of disease, which mildly increased at the third week of infection in some of the patients (Figure 2C). The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is COVID-19.