In an isolated laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine in Mount Sinai, East Harlem, virologist Benjamin never has been able to decipher how the virus that causes COVID-19 assaults our immune system, wreaking havoc like no other virus he has ever examined.

Every cell of our body shares the same DNA and single-strand RNA, which functions like a machine programming the cell to generate proteins, according to New Yorker. SARS-CoV-2 disrupts programming by replacing 60 percent of this software in every cell it infects. Just 1% of the RNA in each cell is replaced by a normal virus.

The novel coronavirus shuts down just one arm of our immune system — the one that alerts other cells to protect themselves from viral spread — while leaving the other arm to run wild. In comparison to other viruses, SARS-CoV-2 does not modulate the second immune response that sends cytokines across the body to summon white blood cells.

Reference
Researchers Discover How COVID-19 Attacks Our Immune …. https://www.newsmax.com/health/headline/immune-system-cytokine-storm-viral-spread/2020/11/03/id/995070/.