The finding of high levels of human neutrophil elastase (HNE) in both nasopharyngeal swabs and in the peripheral blood of patients infected by COVID-19, as well as the fact that this protease may be involved in SARS-CoV-2 virulence (the virus, in fact, requires the cleavage of the spike protein to enter host cells), means that HNE plays a pivotal role in lung infection [1,2,3,4]. The gene discussed is ELANE; the disease is COVID-19.