Crucially, our data do not allow us to determine whether our observation of elevated IL17 responses in patients with severe COVID-19 without overt evidence for fungal colonization (i) is the result of colonization below levels of detection in these assays or (ii) suggests that IL17 elevation represents a general phenotype of epithelial cells of patients with severe COVID-19, independent of fungal colonization. This evidence concerns the gene IL17A and COVID-19.