IL6 and infection: Stimulation of both primary monocytes and THP-1 reporter cell lines with SARS-CoV-2-derived ssRNA led to profound upregulation of all measured cytokine genes (Figure 4C; Supplementary Figure S4E), while primary monocytes increased TNF, IL1B and IL6 and decreased CXCL8 expression upon infection with replication-competent SARS-CoV-2 (Figures 2D; 4B).