the central pathology caused by SARS-CoV2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) was “immunological misfiring”—a dysregulation of immune cells. I had not even heard the term before, but its immensity hit me: at its core, the pandemic, too, was a disease of cells. Yes, there was the virus, but viruses are inert, lifeless, without cells. Our cells had awoken the plague and brought it to life. To understand crucial features of the pandemic, we would need to understand not just the idiosyncrasies of the virus but also the biology of immune cells and their discontents.
