Recent studies have linked laboratory measures of hyperinflammation such as macrophage chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1), C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6), ferritin and procalcitonin (PCT) as strong predictors of disease severity in hospitalized patients with COVID-19 (Broman et al., 2020; Jøntvedt Jørgensen et al., 2020; Mishra et al., 2022). The gene discussed is IL6; the disease is COVID-19.