COVID-19 Highlights
Certain features have been elucidated about the tendencies of human infection of the COVID-19 virus. The most recent paper published in The Journal of Medical Virology early in 2020 states: "These findings suggested that the initiation of the immune response result in the production of chemokines and cytokines, which damage normal host lung." 1 Chemokines and Cytokines are the chemicals the body uses to fight infection, with the purpose of creating a healing for the host-human. When the person has a pre-existing high level of these inflammatory chemicals or has a harder time dampening a hyper-vigilant immune response (as in autoimmunity), an infection can hit much harder than for those with normal inflammatory responses. This explains why COVID-19 is worse for people with underlying conditions that often are paired with older age: diabetes, heart disease, and autoimmune conditions. Determining the level of inflammationfrom a blood sample might help understand where the in