Divergent immunological characteristics of COVID-19, influenza, and other community-acquired pneumonia are shown by integrated single-cell analysis.

Methodological variability and a dearth of pertinent disease controls continue to cast doubt on the precise immunopathophysiology of Community-Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) brought on by SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). It is challenging to differentiate between immunological signs specific to COVID-19 and the typical features of a dysregulated host response to pneumonia since single-cell examinations in the larger population of patients with CAP are not routinely performed. Expanding our understanding of the peripheral immune response in various pneumonia etiologies, we describe shared and diverging transcriptional and phenotypic patterns using this balanced, multi-omics approach, such as in COVID-19, there were higher concentrations of type I interferon-stimulated NK cells, cytotoxic CD8 T EMRA cells in both COVID-19 and influenza, and different monocyte compositions in each group.