Abstract
Most people infected with SARS-CoV-2 experience a mild to moderate acute infection, while ~10% develop hypoxemic pneumonia and 3% develop critical illness, which are outcomes associated with older age and male sex. Inborn errors of type I interferon immunity involving the viral sensors TLR7 or TLR3 can explain critical disease in 1–۵% of people less than 60 years of age, whereas neutralizing autoantibodies to the type I interferons IFN-α, IFN-β and IFN-ω are seen in 15–۲۰% of people over 70 years of age۱, which highlights the importance of type I interferon immunity for protective immunity against acute SARS-CoV-2 infection in the respiratory tract.
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