Boosting Immune System as Treatment Strategy for COVID-19

Researchers challenge 'cytokine storm' theory and find weakened, rather than hyperactive, immunity in response to virus

Nurses care for a patient in an Intensive Care ward treating victims of COVID-19 in Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey, England, on May 22, 2020. Steve Parsons/Reuters

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to claim lives around the world, much research has focused on the immune system’s role in patients who become seriously ill.

A popular theory has it that the immune system gets so revved up fighting the virus that, after several days, it produces a cytokine storm that results in potentially fatal organ damage, particularly to the lungs.