Disparate SARS-CoV-2 Infection Outcomes Abound, but What Makes SARS-CoV-2 Bound for Rebound?

The global research community attacked the COVID-19 pandemic and its causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, with intense ferocity.Over the past four years, one could argue that SARS-CoV-2 was the most intensely studied virus on the planet dwarfing publication outputs of important pathogens such as HIV and influenza virus*.In addition, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, coronaviruses (CoV) had been researched for decades since their discovery in the 1960s (1) and experienced experimental renaissances with the emergence of SARS-CoV in 2002 (2) and discovery of MERS-CoV in 2012 (3) (Fig. 1).Yet despite volumes of research, questions about CoV biology from relatively simple to complex, remain unclear.For example, what is the clinical course SARS-CoV-2 infection?While answering this early in the COVID-19 pandemic may have garnered a relatively straightforward answer, astronomical case numbers, enterprising clinical scientists and time have collectively worked together to provide insights into COVID-19 disease that may have gone unnoticed otherwise, a benefit of studying rapid and explosive infectious disease.