COVID-19 Morbidity Linked to Cytokine Storm

A finance professional with many years of experience in the biotech sector, Richard DiVenuto is a former wealth director at a Fortune 100 investment banking company. Richard DiVenuto has gained knowledge of various forms of autoimmune disorders during the course of his investment advisory work.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic - which has affected US cities like Boston, Massachusetts as well as states including California, New York, and Florida - has been the target of a massive amount of research. A significant amount of that research has focused on the disease’s ultimate effects on the immune system. Some researchers have theorized that the morbidity of the disease is closely linked to the onset of a cytokine storm, where inflammation-inducing cytokines overreact and begin to attack healthy tissue.

While data that cytokine storms are directly responsible for mortality rates is sparse, the same kind of mechanism is seen as a likely cause of mortality in other diseases, such as the Spanish Flu. Drugs specifically targeting cytokines to treat COVID-19 are in clinical trials. However, some medical professionals fear this form of therapy could dampen the immune system and prevent the body from combating the virus effectively.