Cell, suggests that the first response to SARS-CoV-2 infection in the nose and throat may determine the severity of the illness.A team from Boston Children’s Hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center looked at cells from the nose and throat of people with SARS-CoV-2 infections and compared these with the samples from healthy individuals who formed the control group.The researchers took nasal swabs from 35 adults with COVID-19 between April and September 2020.They then sequenced the RNA in each cell to see which cells contained RNA from the virus — showing they were infected — and which of the cell’s genes were turned on or off in response.The researchers found that more of the.