?:abstract
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Severe infection with SARS-CoV-2 is characterized by massive cytokine release and T cell loss. The exaggerated host immune response, incapable of viral clearance, instead aggravates respiratory distress, as well as cardiac and/or damage to other organs. The mortality pattern of SARS-CoV-2 infection, higher in older vs younger adults and almost absent in children, is possibly caused by the effects of age and pre-existing co-morbidities on innate and adaptive immunity. Here, w speculate that the abnormal and excessive immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection partly depends on T cell immunological memory, that is more pronounced in adults compared to children, and may significantly contribute to immunopathology and massive collateral damage in COVID-19 patients.
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